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The Truth About TruNews
P

resident Trump’
s deplor-
able and shameful polit-
ical relationship with 
anti-Semitism recently took 
another troubling turn.
Last month the Trump 
administration approved press 
credentials for coverage of the 
Jan. 21-24 Davos conference in 
Switzerland for a 
website, TruNews, 
which, according 
to its Facebook 
page, is a network 
“reporting the 
countdown to the 
second coming of 
Jesus.
” Its founder, 
a pastor named Rick Wiles from 
Vero Beach, Florida, described 
the impeachment of Trump 
on his website as a “Jew coup” 
planned by a “Jewish cabal.
” 
“That’
s the way Jews work,
” 
Wiles said in a podcast. “They 
are deceivers. They plot, they lie, 
they do whatever they have to 
do to accomplish their political 
agenda.
“The American people bet-
ter wake up to it really fast, 
[because] when Jews take over 
a country, they kill millions of 

Christians,
” he said.
The press credentials gave 
TruNews — an organization that 
thrives on hate — legitimacy. As 
Kyle Mantyla, a senior fellow at 
the progressive advocacy group 
People for the American Way, 
stated: “It’
s a validation of their 
work.
” TruNews “sees it as the 
White House being on their 
side,
” he said.
Wiles recognized that the 
credentials were an implied 
endorsement of its work and 
beliefs, saying, “We want to 
thank President Trump and the 
White House for extending the 
invitation to be here … repre-
senting the kingdom of heaven 
and our king Jesus Christ.
” 
The criticism came quickly, 
with Jonathan Greenblatt, the 
CEO of the Anti-Defamation 
League (ADL), tweeting, 
“Unacceptable is an understate-
ment.
”
U.S. Representatives Ted 
Deutch, D-Florida, and Elaine 
Luria, D-Virginia, sent a critical 
letter to the White House in 
which they said, “
An extremist 
website that frequently attacks 
Jews and other minorities has 

no place in the White House 
… Please let us know how this 
anti-Semitic purveyor of hate 
received access to the White 
House and what steps are being 
taken to ensure no similar group 
is ever recognized at the White 
House again.
”
Deutch and Luria said 
they did not receive a reply. 
Neither did the White House 
Correspondents’
 Association 
(WHCA), which also inquired 
about the credentials.
Jonathan Karl, WHCA pres-
ident, said in a statement it was 
puzzling that TruNews would 
receive credentials while the 
administration has, at times, 
revoked press access to legiti-
mate news organizations such 
as CNN and the Washington 
Post.
Wiles has also maintained 
that Israel and the “Jewish 
mafia” murdered President John 
F. Kennedy, and another edition 
of his podcast claimed Israel 
and the “synagogue of Satan” 
are pushing the United States to 
fight wars on their behalf. 
Giving legitimacy to a “media” 
organization such as TruNews, 

which also has a history of 
spreading conspiracy theories 
and proclaiming an imminent 
apocalypse, is unpardonable and 
condemnable.
Not only does accrediting 
TruNews enhance its reputation 
but — need it be said? — it 
diminishes the White House. It 
is, in short, inexplicable. 
It is hard to grasp that repre-
sentatives of hate and bigotry 
are recognized by any president 
and given a seat at the table with 
the most powerful man in the 
country.
During the Davos confer-
ence, it was business as usual 
for TruNews, which covered 
Trump’
s speech in a favorable 
light as well as the “predictions 
of war and revolution made by 
infamous billionaire George 
Soros.
”
The White House did not 
defend its action pertaining to 
TruNews. The reason: There is 
no defense. 

Berl Falbaum is a veteran political jour-
nalist, and author of 11 books, includ-
ing Not One Normal Day, Trumpedia: 
A Tome of Scandal, Lies, Corruption 
and Much More.

Berl Falbaum

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