WASHINGTON — The White House insists it is the most transparent administration in American history. Yet this week, a hastily deleted video, an escalating feud with journalists, and renewed questions about secrecy surrounding presidential health and the Epstein files have combined to tell a very different story — one of control, retaliation, and an increasingly desperate effort to manage perception rather than reality.
The episode began quietly and then unraveled in public. Carolyn Leavitt, a senior communications official for President T.r.u.m.p, was caught scrambling to suppress a video that critics say exposed the administration’s deep hostility toward the press. The footage was briefly posted across official channels — including X, TikTok, and even the White House website — before vanishing. But by then, it was too late. Screen recordings had already spread.
The video itself was styled as satire. Set to “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” it featured an AI-generated Santa unrolling a so-called “naughty list” of journalists and media outlets — including CNN’s Jake Tapper, reporters from MSNBC, CBS, Axios, The Bulwark, and other mainstream organizations. The closing message read: “Better luck next year.”
What the administration appeared to view as a joke landed very differently outside the West Wing.
“This isn’t a joke — it’s a blacklist,” warned commentator Brian Allen, who noted that authoritarian governments historically begin by mocking the press before formally targeting it. Legal scholars echoed that concern, with one MSNBC analyst calling the video “positively authoritarian,” particularly given that it was produced using artificial intelligence and distributed through official government platforms.
Within hours, the video was deleted. A placeholder message appeared instead: “This video has been removed by the uploader.” But deletion only amplified the controversy. Google search results continued to surface cached thumbnails, while influencers and journalists replayed the clip repeatedly, dissecting its symbolism and intent.
The incident did not occur in isolation. It followed a tense on-camera exchange between Ms. Leavitt and CNN anchor Caitlin Collins, during which inflation statistics, media scrutiny, and credibility clashed head-on. Ms. Leavitt accused reporters of pushing “untrue narratives” and shielding the Biden administration in the past, arguing that the press had failed to scrutinize inflation and border policy with the same intensity.
Critics responded by pointing out what they see as a double standard in the opposite direction: extensive coverage of President Biden’s health and economic record, contrasted with what they describe as a consistent effort to downplay or obscure concerns about T.r.u.m.p’s health, decision-making, and ties to controversial figures — including renewed scrutiny of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The deleted video also intersected with another, more dangerous line of attack on journalism emerging from the administration’s national security apparatus. Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, has repeatedly accused reporters of endangering American troops through leaks — claims that journalists and former intelligence officials strongly dispute.
In one prominent example, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was inadvertently added to a Signal chat involving defense officials. Goldberg later reported that he deliberately withheld sensitive information and that no classified details were leaked by the press. Still, the administration has continued to portray journalists as reckless and hostile actors.
That framing has drawn sharp criticism from Capitol Hill. In a wide-ranging interview this week, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned that the administration’s behavior was undermining trust not just in the media, but in America’s national security institutions themselves.
Warner pointed specifically to recent military actions in the Caribbean and Venezuela, where videos of strikes — some reportedly withheld from public release — have raised questions about legality and proportionality. “If what we are seeing amounts to war crimes,” Warner said, “the consequences extend far beyond a single strike. This affects how the world views our military and whether our allies trust us.”
He also revealed growing private unease among Republican lawmakers, some of whom, he said, have quietly urged Democrats to “keep pressing” because they themselves feel unable or unwilling to confront the administration directly. “I don’t want to be your conscience,” Warner said. “I want you to vote your conscience.”
The combination of media attacks, secrecy, and internal dissent has created a feedback loop that appears to be accelerating rather than containing damage. By deleting the video, the White House confirmed its existence. By mocking journalists, it elevated their warnings. And by insisting on transparency while suppressing material, it sharpened doubts about what else might be hidden.
In attempting to discredit the press, the administration may instead be eroding its own credibility — turning a staged holiday joke into a defining symbol of a presidency increasingly at war with scrutiny itself, as clips continue to circulate, outrage spreads across platforms, and the internet keeps exploding.