Donald Trump’s propaganda video today was even more of a scandal than you think

| 11:00 pm EDT April 13, 2020
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How thoroughly has Donald Trump given up when it comes to trying to defend his failed response to the coronavirus? During his press conference today, he aired a lengthy propaganda video that tried to make his case for him, instead of bothering to defend himself.

The video was such a dishonestly edited mess, and such a blatant attempt at squeezing a campaign ad into a press briefing, CNN and MSNBC both ended up cutting away from the video. The video was a crime against the truth. Now it turns out the video was also a violation of the law.

Trump has confirmed that the video was made by his own White House staff. That’s a problem. Because it’s a de facto campaign ad, it means his staffers violated the Hatch Act by working on it. To be clear, the Hatch Act doesn’t come with any criminal penalties; the worst that can happen to his staffers is that they’re fined or fired, and we know the Trump regime won’t enforce it. But the video was literally a violation of the law. It was that scandalous.