January 1, Trump Exhaustion Syndrome Grips Reporters Who Skip Fact-Checking

Wyatt’s Take

• Journalists are ignoring clear evidence of Trump directing the Justice Department to file lawsuits, choosing instead to move on to the next shiny story.
• Reporters once demanded brick-wall separation between the White House and DOJ, yet now shrug when that line is crossed.
• Trump keeps proving the media will chase distractions while letting real power plays slip through unnoticed.

After a decade of watching the press cover the president, many reporters appear to have given up on basic fact-checking.

They call it exhaustion. In plain terms, they just stopped bothering.

The latest sign came when the president openly said he ordered the Justice Department to jump into the Alaska election mess. He said it out loud. No code words. No hiding.

“No, no, he didn’t say it on camera,” Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted on CBS.

“Yes he did,” host Margaret Brennan shot back.

The exchange aired on Sunday. By Monday morning, most big papers had already moved past it.

That same week the president declared the old White House swimming pool would never return. Reporters who had just reported the opposite idea a month earlier simply dropped the subject instead of noting the change.

People Magazine had quoted him pushing the pool idea only weeks before. Now it is treated like it never happened.

The author makes clear he is not anti-Trump. He has covered the president since 1987 and interviewed him six times during the 2024 campaign. He says the man can be charming in person and that half the country voted for him for solid reasons.

Yet the piece argues that Trump still knows exactly how to toss out a wild comment and watch the press chase it instead of the story that actually matters.

Calling Norway a “s***-house country” or praising Nicki Minaj gets headlines. Ordering the Justice Department into an election barely gets a follow-up.

The writer remembers when any president who ordered the DOJ to act for political gain would have faced impeachment. That standard now seems forgotten.

Wyatt Matters

Middle America still expects the same rules for every president. When the press drops those rules for one man, it tells working families their votes and their values no longer count the same as before.