Trump team's newest misinformation blitz goes unchecked by big media (The Contrarian)

Excerpt

On CNN’s State of the Union, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett made a stunning statement about the majority of the world’s nations. The message of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, he said, was, “‘If you come to the table and negotiate us -- with us and treat us the same way we treat you, then we will get your rate really low.’ So, right now, 130 countries have responded, and we're negotiating with them, and they have got their rate down to 10 percent.”

Is that true? You might hope the news show would ask for some sort of list or proof. You’d be disappointed. (Last week, when the administration floated a figure of over 75 countries, NBC reported that the White House refused to release a list.) Nevertheless, it took no time for news headlines to pick up on the 130 figure Sunday as though it’s somehow trustworthy.

Even the White House itself did not include this figure in its list of favorite quotes from the Sunday shows. (Reaching anyone at this White House is nearly impossible, but I attempted to email Hassett at a non-governmental email address I found for him.)

Over on ABC’s This Week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied reality about a red state. Attempting to claim that Trump is great for American manufacturing, he said the Japanese company Panasonic “built an amazing factory in Kansas, which they're opening now. They put it in the ground when Donald Trump was the president, and [they’re] just finishing now.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/contrarian/p/trump-teams-newest-lies-about-tariffs