It’s no secret President Donald Trump is frustrated with the press.
Not a day has passed since Trump entered the White House that has been free of negative attention from the media. But now the Trump administration is fighting back. No, not though the president’s Twitter account—that’s not helping.
They’re doing it with a fresh newsletter.
This week, the White House unveiled its latest newsletter, West Wing Reads, which bills itself as “the best stories the West Wing is reading.” Subscribers to the White House’s other newsletter, 1600 Daily, are prompted to sign up for the new addition.
According to the White House, West Wing Reads is meant to give subscribers an inside look at the media Trump staffers are reading—particularly those with a positive bent toward the president and his agenda.
“West Wing Reads was launched to give Americans across the country an inside look into the articles White House staff are reading each day,” a White House staffer tells Politico. “We focus on sharing stories and perspectives that may have been missed by the mainstream media.”
Thursday’s edition of West Wing Reads, for example, focuses entirely on the debate over healthcare law. The lead article, a piece by Forbes contributor Josh Archambault, disputes the Congressional Budget Office assessment that 22 million fewer people will have health insurance under the Senate Republican plan. (Archambault, who specializes in policy for a pair of think tanks, says the number is actually only 2 million.) Another included piece, from Bloomberg, details the problems created by Anthem leaving the Obamacare marketplace in Nevada. Other links include stories from Real Clear Politics, Fox News, Lifezette, the Hill, and the Washington Times.
So far, the stories included in West Wing Reads are what you would expect from a White House-produced newsletter: They support the Trump administration’s narrative on any given topic. And it has so far avoided media faux pas, like linking to InfoWars, as the Trump campaign did earlier this year.
If nothing else, West Wing Reads provides a window into some of the stories that the Trump administration considers “real news”—something we Americans don’t hear very often.
You can sign up for “West Wing Reads” here.
