The Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes has consumed much of the oxygen in right-wing media this fall in an internal struggle over his position in the MAGA coalition. Beyond that struggle though, Fuentes embodies the MAGA movement’s cynical embrace of extremism in service of political power. His influence is aptly suited to the perverse incentives of the online attention economy, as detailed in this fantastic piece from Media Matters’ Olivia Little looking at Fuentes’ presence on TikTok. 

Fuentes’ core message is that Trump is presenting a watered-down version of what should be done and the only true way to improve America is through even more repression, even more hate, even more division, and by putting cowards like him in positions of absolute power. His message is imbued with racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and other hatred, and certainly this is a type of misinformation. But in an era filled with lies, the idea that these retrograde beliefs will somehow lead to a utopian version of America stands out. It might be the biggest lie of them all. 

Read the piece on why Fuentes is misinformer of the year here.

President Donald Trump responded to the stabbing deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner in a truly disgusting and unhinged manner. In a Monday Truth Social post, Trump gleefully attributed Reiner’s death to “the anger” the legendary director “caused others” via his anti-Trump activism. Trump’s gross attack against Reiner drew a surprising amount of criticism within right-wing media. 

On social media, conservative pundits and Fox News stars used words like “disgraceful,” “appalling,” disgusting,” “unnecessary,” “inappropriate,” “gross,” “awful,” cruel,” and “insane” to describe Trump gloating about the brutal killings. Pundits, such as Ben Shapiro, condemned Trump’s response, calling it “vile and egregious.” Even callers to right-wing shows and users on Trump’s Truth Social platform have responded negatively to his comments, calling them “tacky” and “inappropriate,” and arguing that the post was the “nail in the coffin” for Trump’s continued success. While Trump himself has a near-pathological lack of empathy, clearly his followers don’t feel the same. The criticism Trump has received demonstrates how he is losing his grip on right-wing media. 

But not everyone criticized Trump. A handful of prominent commentators on the right have risen in support of Trump’s Reiner remarks. These people are justifying Trump’s comments on the grounds that Reiner is a “loser” who “spent a decade slandering” the president. They are praising Trump for being “very honest” and not “a phony.” They are arguing that complaining about it is stupid because Reiner’s leftist movement purportedly “wants us all dead.” And they are lashing out at those criticizing Trump, calling them “fake grifters” who are “whining” about the president. 

The president’s sociopathic response to a beloved celebrity’s brutal murder, allegedly at the hands of his own son, is chilling. But what’s even more horrifying is that some of Trump’s supporters in the media would defend such blatantly inhumane behavior. Of course, this is nothing new — it’s been an enduring theme in the MAGA movement to defend the indefensible.

• Podcaster Megyn Kelly attacked FBI Director Kash Patel regarding last weekend’s Brown University shooting: “It’s not good that our friend Kash Patel tweeted out they have a person of interest in custody … when it wasn’t the guy.” 
• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh condemned Trump’s response to Rob Reiner’s death, saying the comments were “ridiculous low-class, gross behavior. It’s grotesque. It’s stupid. It’s wrong.” 
• Fox host Tomi Lahren: “I think we also need to talk about the rising antisemitism on the right and how it needs to be squashed, because I find it repulsive and disgusting."

In the aftermath of Democratic victories in the off-year elections across the country last month (and with public opinion surveys clearly signaling that Americans increasingly blame Donald Trump for rising costs), Fox News and Fox Business launched a campaign to shift blame for rising costs away from the current president and onto former President Joe Biden (who has been out of office for nearly a year). It’s worth remembering that Trump ran for president on promises to immediately lower prices. 

In the 31 days after and including Election Day, Fox News and Fox Business aired nearly triple the number of segments about high and rising grocery prices than in the 31 days prior to the election. Most notably, nearly a third of the segments about higher prices included at least one comment that placed blame on Biden, and overall Fox aired nearly 8 times as many segments that included at least one comment blaming Biden. (During October, Fox spent less than 1 ½ minutes per day on average on high and rising grocery prices). 

Overall, Fox has had a hard time this year spinning Trump’s poor economy. Nonetheless, the network has been promising that 2026 will be better. We’ll see. 

While Trump continues to deny the basic reality that all Americans know — namely, that grocery prices are rising — and calls concerns about affordability “a Democratic hoax,” Fox is doing the president’s dirty work by shifting the blame.

• Right-wing media spun the bad November jobs report as a win for “native-born” workers, trying to pit them against immigrant workers. Besides being gross, it’s also a remarkably misleading claim. Media Matters has a great analysis of the spin. 
• Steve Bannon has reportedly communicated with Jeffrey Epstein extensively. But during his Tuesday show, Bannon nodded along while his guest accused a Democratic senator of second-hand ties to Epstein. 
• Podcaster Tim Pool: “I think the reason we’re getting involved in Venezuela largely is because Trump is like, the economy is not doing too well. Let’s go get some oil, baby.”

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is setting a goal of bringing 100-200 denaturalization cases per month in fiscal year 2026, up from over 120 cases in total brought between 2017 and the present. Two recent clips from high-profile MAGA podcasters suggest that this new effort to ramp up denaturalizations is driven largely by anti-Muslim bigotry. 

In segments on Steve Bannon’s War Room and Jack Posobiec’s Human Events Daily, guests with close ties to the White House made it clear that they would want Trump’s denaturalization ramp-up to target Muslims specifically. 

As we reported in March, right-wing figures were already waging a campaign to denaturalize and deport their political opponents, many of whom are Muslim. That effort has only increased over the course of the year.