Spin Cycle: Five Times The Legacy Media, Trump Battled For Narrative Control In 2025

Even before he raised his right hand to take the Oath of Office for the second, Donald Trump was warring with legacy media outlets over who would control the narrative. That battle played out all year long — in headlines, press rooms, and on the Sunday morning political talk shows.

The Spin Cycle was there all year long, capturing the moments Democrats and the legacy media worked overtime to spin the narrative against President Trump and his administration. 

So, as 2025 comes to a close, let’s look back at five times that happened.

Inauguration Day:

The Sunday shows aired just hours before Trump was officially sworn in, and already a question hung in the air: was a second Trump presidency a new beginning or the beginning of the end?

ABC News host Jonathan Karl opened “This Week” with this statement: “We come on the air this morning on the precipice of a historic moment, one that feels more like the beginning of a new era than a new presidency.”

He balanced that almost optimistic sentiment, however, by pausing to note that Trump would swear the oath in “the very building that was attacked by rioters shortly before the last inauguration.”

“We come on the air this morning on the precipice of a historic moment, one that feels more like the beginning of a new era than a new presidency.” @JonKarl has the latest on Donald Trump’s return to Washington: https://t.co/DK1VYkzLWF pic.twitter.com/CyrF40EIEz

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 19, 2025

Of course, several Democrats voiced concerns over policy changes Trump promised to make, from tariffs to mass deportations, saying that they expected more bad than good to come out of the president’s second term. But on “Face the Nation,” a CBS News poll suggested that the public took a different view than the Democrats.

“There is majority optimism in the country about the next four years with Donald Trump as president,” Anthony Salvanto explained, showing a graphic of the poll results that said 60% were optimistic about Trump’s second term.

A majority of Americans say they are optimistic about Donald Trump’s second term, a CBS News poll finds one day before the president-elect’s inauguration, with high expectations for the economy after he returns to office.@SalvantoCBS breaks down what we’re seeing: pic.twitter.com/wXABLCOVNc

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 19, 2025

DOGE Musk Be Stopped!

By February, nearly all of the new Trump administration hit the ground running — save for a few nominations held up in the Senate. That group included billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, with Trump’s full support, spearheading efforts to streamline the federal government via the new Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz dove in headfirst, playing up the “chaos and confusion” caused by DOGE’s efforts, emphasizing details such as how much “access” to sensitive information DOGE employees must have in order to complete their tasks.

Raddatz had help from Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who claimed, “I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate. The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes.”

“I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy tells @MarthaRaddatz.

“The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes.” https://t.co/XbLNUK9FRE pic.twitter.com/mzJMn0uscV

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 9, 2025

Murphy did not, however, endeavor to explain what was corrupt about suggesting that the American people should not be forced to fork over tax dollars to fund Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Central and South America or build electric cars for Vietnam — just a few of the wasteful items uncovered by DOGE employees.

The Connecticut Democrat even suggested that “full-scale” opposition to Musk and DOGE was not only reasonable but necessary: “You cannot just rely on the court system when the challenge to the Constitution and the billionaire takeover is so acute and so urgent.”

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser also weighed in, asking, “How is it possible that one unelected billionaire, the richest man in the world, can unilaterally do that without any process?”

To date, according to the DOGE website, the department has uncovered some $214 billion in savings — which amounts to more than $1,200 per taxpayer.

Beatt The Press

In May, President Trump sat down for an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, moderator of “Meet the Press,” and he routinely pushed back on the framing of her questions.

Welker asked about the economy, pressing Trump to say whether or not Americans were still living in the Biden economy or in his — and he threaded the needle carefully, noting that some policies would give noticeable effects more quickly than others.

“I think certain aspects of it are. Costs are. I was able to get down the costs, but even that, it takes awhile to get them down but we got them down good. … We lost $5-6 billion a day [on trade] with Biden — $5-6 billion. And I’ve got that down to a great number right now in a record time.”

True to form, NBC published a piece on the interview stating that Trump had claimed ownership of the “good parts” of the economy while blaming Biden for the bad.

Welker pressed Trump on whether or not he believed everyone in the United States — whether citizen or not — was entitled to due process and the right to plead their case before a judge, and Trump’s reply was simple: “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

“We have thousands of people … some of the worst, most dangerous on earth — and I was elected to get them the hell out of here and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump added.

.@POTUS: “We have thousands of people … some of the worst, most dangerous on earth — and I was elected to get them the hell out of here and the courts are holding me from doing it.” pic.twitter.com/uNJESyWas1

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 4, 2025

They Really Can’t Help It, Can They?

In September, the murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on a Utah college campus prompted President Trump to issue one of the first public statements mourning his friend. He later took the stage at Kirk’s memorial, expressing sorrow and anger before a crowd of thousands.

Charlie’s widow, Erika, also spoke at the memorial service, where she said she had forgiven the man responsible for murdering her husband and leaving her two children without their father: “That young man, that young man. On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do.”

Erika Kirk forgives the man who murdered her husband:

“My husband Charlie…he wanted to save young men just like the one who took his life…that young man…

I forgive him.

I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.” pic.twitter.com/Pd1yGRMRVw

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) September 21, 2025

On MSNBC (Now MS NOW), Ayman Mohideen praised Erika Kirk — but he used her speech to attack President Trump for taking a different route.

“There is that disconnect between the grief that a mother who is just going to bury her husband, the father of her children, and a president who’s talking about the the politics of this moment,” Mohideen complained. “And I think that’s what my takeaway was from that speech, you know, the opportunity for the president to try to heal and bring the country, as many had hoped he would, and not doing it in the way that many people would expect a president to do.”

On CNN, former Democratic National Committee comms director Xochitl Hinojosa gave essentially the same assessment: “I think in times like this, especially when there is political violence, you need the president, regardless of who it is, to bring the country together. And that has not happened. This was an opportunity for Trump to do that. He did not take that opportunity. The person who really did that was Erika Kirk.”

Jay Who? Sunday Shows Ignore Virginia AG Scandal

When a text scandal plagued Attorney General-elect Jay Jones (D-VA) in October, legacy media outlets all but ignored it — a move that likely aided him in coasting past incumbent and Trump-ally Attorney General Jason Miyares (R-VA) in November.

After the scandal broke, the topic was only discussed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” — and even then, it was not the show’s host who made it a topic of discussion. Marc Short, who served as Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, brought it up.

BONKERS. Neera Tanden excuses Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones calling for the assassination of a Republican leader and his kids as just merely just a “private conversation.”

Utterly disgraceful. ????????????????
pic.twitter.com/N5KEyFZHPU

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 5, 2025

“Can we stop with the pearl-clutching about the mean tweets and the sombrero tweets?” he asked. “This week it came to light that a Democrat candidate for attorney general in the state of Virginia called for the assassination of a political opponent, called for the assassination of that political opponent’s family, and there’s not one national Democrat calling for him to step aside — not one! It’s disgraceful.”

Kristen Welker prompted Neera Tanden, who worked in the Biden White House, to then weigh in, and she almost immediately pivoted to suggest that Trump was worse.

“I mean, I absolutely think people should criticize that, 100%,” Tanden said. “I think it was a private conversation he had, but still awful and disgusting … it should be condemned, but then we should condemn that, but then you should condemn when the president calls the Democratic Party the ‘party of satan.’”

Short mentioned the Jones scandal in light of so many Democrats engaged in a public meltdown over a few memes featuring House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) with a fake mustache and a sombrero.

Vice President JD Vance also pushed back on efforts to scuttle the story, saying, “The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents in private messages. I’m sure the people hyperventilating about sombrero memes will join me in calling for this very deranged person to drop out of the race.”