Jesus Mary & Joseph

 Weaponizing government much?

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS SENDING aggressive signals about launching a potential federal investigation into the company that owns Politico and Business Insider as retaliation for an article scrutinizing Donald Trump Jr.’s business interests.

In a Tuesday-night story little noticed outside of right-wing media, Breitbart reporter and Trump administration favorite Matthew Boyle wrote that the White House was furious at German media conglomerate Axel Springer. At issue was a Business Insider story titled “Don Jr. is the new Hunter Biden.” In the 1,500-word-long item, reporter Bethany McLean focused on Don Jr.’s venture-capital fund, 1789 Capital, primarily via a collection of quotes from some ethics experts and an anonymous Wall Street investor concerned that the fund could present a conflict of interest.

[...]

A global media giant, Axel Springer had worked to build inroads with Trump. The company is, by the standards of journalism, pretty conservative. Axel Springer employees in Europe are required to take a pledge to support Israel. And in 2020, CEO Mathias Döpfner asked some of his employees to gather and pray for Trump’s re-election.

  The Bulwark

As we all know by now, loyalty/favor only goes one way with Trump.

The story was relatively anodyne, certainly in a world where the president is poised to receive a $400 million luxury jet from a foreign country and boosting a meme coin by offering White House access. And Business Insider isn’t the first media outlet to compare Don Jr. to Hunter Biden.

But Boyle wrote that the Business Insider article had opened up Axel Springer to a “massive” federal review of its ownership.

[...]

A defining characteristic of the Trump 2.0 administration has been its overt attempts to use the tools of the government on—and threats of lawsuits against—major news outlets. It has often worked: Networks have made multimillion-dollar settlements with Trump. Newspapers like the Washington Post have dramatically revamped their editorial pages in apparent attempts at currying favor.

[...]

“Wow is this true [AxelSpringer]??” right-wing figure Jack Posobiec posted on X. “Looking bad!”

“Time to drop the hammer on @AxelSpringer!!!” wrote former Trump adviser Jason Miller.

[...]

First-term Trump official Cliff Sims agreed, telling Boyle that comparing the Biden scion to the Trump scion meant Business Insider is a “disgrace to journalism.”

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THIS IS NOT THE FIRST SERIES OF BAD STORIES that Axel Springer has had to navigate during the Trump administration. A bizarre confluence of events earlier this year inspired a conspiracy theory on the right that USAID had been secretly funding Politico. In reality, the agency (like others) had been paying for pricey government subscriptions to Politico’s premium offerings, which it promptly canceled when word got out.

But the latest round of controversy represents a much bigger potential threat. The loss of a small portion of Politico Pro revenue is minor compared to the price tag of defending against a potentially drawn-out government investigation into whether your organization amounts to a foreign influence-peddling operation.

You may not disparage the Trumps.