The Trump administration’s uneasy relationship with the free press took a darker — and frankly, stranger — turn this month. After virtually every major news outlet refused to sign onto the Defense Department’s new restrictive media policy, the administration announced a plan to create its own parallel Pentagon press corps, made up almost entirely of obscure, right-wing publications that exist somewhere between fan club and conspiracy channel.
The move, first reported by The Washington Post and The Guardian, follows a new Department of Defense rule issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a longtime Trump loyalist. The policy demanded that reporters obtain pre-approval from the Pentagon before soliciting or publishing any information about defense operations. In other words, journalists were asked to agree that the government — not the press — decides what the public can know.
Unsurprisingly, mainstream media outlets refused. From The Associated Press and Reuters to Fox News and Newsmax, networks across the ideological spectrum flatly rejected the administration’s demand. The refusal, which was unanimous among accredited media organizations, sent the administration scrambling for a way to save face — and maintain control over the narrative.
Their answer? Create a “shadow” press corps, stocked with lesser-known hyper-partisan websites that would gladly amplify the administration’s talking points without asking uncomfortable questions.
The Pentagon’s New “Press Corps”
According to a draft release obtained by The Washington Post, the outlets approved under the new agreement include:
- The Gateway Pundit
- The Post Millennial
- Human Events
- The National Pulse
- Turning Point USA’s Frontlines
- Timcast (run by Tim Pool)
- Washington Reporter (a Substack-based newsletter)
- Lindell TV, owned by MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell
The Pentagon described this new lineup as “a partnership between patriotic media and the Department of Defense.” Critics, however, called it what it is: a propaganda pipeline.
Even Fox News and Newsmax — typically reliable allies of the Trump administration — refused to participate. That left the Pentagon to “scour the bowels of the internet,” as one analyst put it, in search of anyone willing to rubber-stamp the administration’s censorship-by-contract approach.
The result is a lineup of outlets so obscure that many Americans have never heard of them, unless they frequent corners of the web populated by white nationalist podcast hosts and anti-media conspiracy theorists.
One journalist described the lineup as “the Temu version of Fox News — cheap, off-brand, and guaranteed to break after one use.”
“Self-Righteous Media Who Chose to Self-Deport”
In an extraordinary statement, Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson attempted to reframe the exodus of legitimate journalists as a form of arrogance.
“Journalists who refused to sign the agreement are self-righteous media who chose to self-deport,” Wilson said.
The remark immediately drew ridicule online, as observers pointed out that literally every major news outlet in the country had refused to comply — including long-established publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
“This isn’t a few elitist reporters walking out,” one defense analyst noted. “It’s every credible media institution in America telling the Pentagon, ‘This is unconstitutional.’”
The administration’s framing, critics argue, is an attempt to portray censorship as patriotism, while painting independent journalism as disloyalty.
What Reporters Were Asked to Sign
The Pentagon’s official explanation for the mass media walkout has been misleading at best.
“They walked out because they refused to sign an agreement that was simple, common-sense stuff,” Wilson said. “Wear a visible press badge, don’t enter classified spaces, and stay in designated corridors.”
That version leaves out the crucial detail: the agreement also required reporters to submit all questions, interviews, and publications for Pentagon approval before release.
That clause effectively ends independent journalism within the Defense Department — a level of information control unseen since before the Vietnam War.
“It’s the kind of clause that makes you wonder if someone in the administration read 1984 and thought it was a how-to manual,” one former Pentagon press officer told Politico.
A Cowardly Administration Hiding Behind Friendly Fire
For years, Trump and his allies have railed against what they call the “fake news media.” But this latest episode shows something far more serious than rhetorical sparring: a government seeking to replace watchdog journalism with state-approved flattery.
Filling the Pentagon press corps with ideologues and influencers who’ve built careers on disinformation — rather than trained reporters — is more than embarrassing; it’s dangerous. It signals a White House that fears transparency and despises accountability.
“Trump’s Pentagon doesn’t want journalists,” one critic observed. “They want stenographers.”
Even conservative commentators have balked at the absurdity. “When Newsmax and Fox say your media policy is too extreme,” tweeted former GOP strategist Rick Wilson, “you’ve officially left reality.”
History Repeating Itself — Badly
Attempts to muzzle the press are nothing new. Presidents from Nixon to Bush have clashed with journalists. But even Nixon’s press restrictions didn’t come close to demanding that reporters pre-clear all content with the government before publication.
“Every administration has its conflicts with the press,” said historian Anne Applebaum. “What’s happening now is different — it’s an attempt to replace independent media entirely.”
The comparison many observers draw is not to American history, but to the authoritarian regimes the U.S. has long condemned. Russia, Turkey, and Hungary all employ “approved media lists,” allowing only government-friendly outlets to operate in key state buildings. The Trump administration’s Pentagon plan mirrors that model almost exactly.
The Bottom Line
The White House’s new “Bootleg Pentagon Press Corps” may be filled with die-hard loyalists and MAGA influencers, but it’s unlikely to fool the American public for long. Even many conservatives recognize that a press that must ask permission to report is not a free press at all.
This administration’s obsession with control — over narratives, newsrooms, and even facts — reflects a deeper insecurity: fear of being held accountable.
And in trying to silence criticism, the Trump administration has achieved the opposite. By creating a fake press corps to replace a free one, it has confirmed every accusation of paranoia and authoritarianism its critics have ever made.
