A16Z's Global Mission
Original author: a16z
Compile: Peggy
Editor’s Note: This article documents Trump’s full return to public view after disappearing for over a week. Facing questions about his health, military actions in Iran, and internal party divisions, he needed this appearance to reassert control—but the entire speech continually strayed from core issues: from the transformation of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, to comparisons with Martin Luther King Jr.’s rally attendance, to attacks on journalists, Democrats, and multiple U.S. cities. The 43-minute press conference gradually devolved into a politically charged performance steeped in resentment and unease.
The article focuses on two levels. First, it reveals a concentrated exposure of Trump’s personal condition and style of power. Through details such as his humiliation of journalists, attacks on cities and political opponents, and the rapid clearing of the venue after his sudden cancellation of an event, the author portrays a president who appears out of control, anxious, and highly defensive. Second, it examines the institutional changes revolving around Trump. The article notes that the executive orders he signed will weaken job protections for senior federal employees, making it more likely that experienced civil servants may be replaced due to political stance or disobedience. This means that professional judgment and institutional constraints within the government are being squeezed by a stronger logic of personal loyalty.
The latter part of the article extends the discussion to the media. The author argues that Trump’s attacks on CNN journalists, along with internal crises of editorial independence at mainstream outlets like CBS, reveal that U.S. news organizations are under dual pressure from political power and commercial interests. When mainstream media begin to compromise with power, independent journalists and creators become vital forces in preserving public truth. This is also why the author repeatedly calls for support of independent media.
This article has a strong tone with clear political bias and mobilizing overtones, but the questions it raises are practically significant: When power continuously attacks journalists, weakens the civil service, rewards loyalty, and punishes dissent, can the public still access sufficiently reliable information? When the commercial interests of media institutions intertwine with political pressure, how long can journalistic independence be sustained? Trump’s recent appearance offers a window for observation, reflecting the deepening institutional tensions in American politics: the expansion of personal power, the erosion of trust in the media, pressure on the civil service, and the ongoing contraction of the public space for factual discourse.
The following is the original text:
At 3:50 PM today, the President of the United States reappeared in public after more than a week out of sight. Prior to this, he had not attended any public events since going to Walter Reed Medical Center. As bad news accumulated and concerns over his deteriorating health grew, Donald Trump was forced to show himself. For 43 minutes, Trump and his supporters attempted to project the image of a strong, in-control leader. But what the world saw was a paranoid individual: praising an authoritarian leader as “my friend, a good man”; attacking a journalist as “a young, beautiful woman who never smiles,” claiming she was “filled with hatred”; and desperately clinging to the illusion that everything was under control.
It all began with a photo of the reflecting pool—the very project Trump currently favors. Before signing any documents or answering any questions, the president spent several minutes talking about the reflecting pool on the National Mall. He described its length, had staff bring up pictures, and compared it to some of the world’s tallest buildings. He mentioned the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, and the Sears Tower, as if a flat expanse of water could be stood upright like a skyscraper. He told the camera that the pool would turn into “American flag blue” and boasted about how many truckloads of trash had been removed from it. The man who had vanished from public view for over a week reappeared—not to address his absence, his health, or the crises facing the nation—but to talk about a pond.
Then, his rambling turned to the truly revolting and most telling part. He began describing the location where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most important speeches in modern American history, and used it to claim that his own crowd was larger than King’s. “They say he had a million people, and I only had 25,000,” he said, then insisted that if you put the two photos side by side, “I have more people. They’re more crowded. My people are more crowded.”
For Trump, everything is a competition because everything stems from insecurity. Facing that reflecting pool—where Dr. King once spoke of justice, equality, and the unfulfilled promises of American democracy—Trump’s first thought was crowd size. Not the speech, not the movement, not the courage it took in 1963 to stand there and demand that America live up to its ideals. All he thought about was whether he looked bigger. And the people beside him merely nodded, smiled, and agreed.
Serious matters are buried beneath these absurdities. He signed two executive orders: one reshaping the customs enforcement system, and another eliminating long-standing job protections for approximately 8,000 senior federal employees, making them subject to arbitrary dismissal. These protections exist to ensure government officials adhere to the law, the Constitution, and the public interest—not to the personal orders of the president. Once removed, competence will no longer matter more than obedience; dissent will become grounds for termination; and those who should speak truth within government will quickly realize their jobs depend on telling leaders what they want to hear.
Afterward, everything reverted to his personal grievances. He attacked the judge who ruled against his “anti-militarization fund,” calling the ruling出自“radical left-wing judges.” He repeatedly cast himself as a victim, especially when discussing the search of his home, seeking sympathy. When a journalist asked about the $1.776 billion “slush fund,” he simply said: “I like it. I think it’s very important.”
Then, he began to repackage his war in Iran. After launching strikes against Iran without congressional approval, he wanted people to believe it wasn’t really a war at all. “It’s not a big deal for us,” he said, “we have a powerful military. It’s not a big deal for us.” At the same time, he assured the stock market was soaring, retirement accounts were growing, and costs were falling. The war was insignificant; the economy was perfect. If your grocery bill suggested otherwise, clearly you should doubt your own eyes.
Then his topic drifted to communism. He had posted about it earlier that day on Truth Social and clearly took pride in it. The first post read: “Has anyone ever seen a happy communist?” The second was longer: “Communists are always popular with voters at first—or, as they put it, with the ‘people’! But in the end, the country, state, or city always heads to hell!” When a journalist read his own words back to him, he immediately perked up. “That’s what I just wrote,” he said. “Do you like it? Do you think it’s well-written?” He eagerly sought praise. For a president, this was an embarrassingly visible moment for the whole world to see.
Then comes the familiar script. He calls New York, Los Angeles, and parts of California communist. He performs in first person as his imagined communist agitator: “You’ll never have to pay rent again.” “I’ll end your mortgage.” “I’ll give you free food.” “Follow me, and you’ll live the greatest life.” He plays the villain in a one-person play. He calls the governor of Illinois a “lazybones” and the mayor of Chicago an “idiot.” He denounces city after city in the nation he leads, listing those he claims are failing, and ultimately casts himself as the only one who can save them.
Then, in the middle of it all, he suddenly stopped. No conclusion, no natural ending. He was still speaking, moving from one grievance to the next, when he suddenly said, “Thank you very much, everyone.” Almost immediately, his staff sprang into action. “Thank you, media. Thank you, media.” Reporters were ushered out of the room, and the space was cleared. Trump remained seated behind his desk, expressionless, shoulders slumped, as if sinking into his chair.
We’ve seen this process before. Some change occurs, and the event ends abruptly. The room is cleared, staff move quickly, and the same phrases are repeated over and over, almost like a rehearsed signal. We don’t know what triggers it—whether it’s a physical issue or a cognitive one. But we know this isn’t how a normal press event ends, nor how a president typically concludes a public appearance. And it happens frequently enough that those around him seem to know exactly what to do the moment it occurs.
During that long outburst, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins stood there doing her job, while he turned on her. He called CNN “deceitful,” “a very corrupt organization,” and dismissed the network as garbage. He looked at her and said she “never smiles,” that she was “a young, beautiful woman” standing there with “hatred in her eyes.” When she tried to speak, he interrupted: “Wait, be quiet.” He told her: “You should be ashamed of yourself.” He repeatedly referred to Democrats as “Dumbocrats.” Then he said something I will never forget. Speaking about Democrats and about her, he said: “They have problems. You have problems.”
When he accused others of having problems, he sat there, gripping his right hand with his left, pressing it down. His face was swollen, and his right eye sometimes swelled shut so badly he could barely open it while walking. His speech alternated between slurred and suddenly clear. He would erupt, then become flat and monotone, only to erupt again. As a human, it was hard not to feel awkward for him. But as an American, it was even harder: to think of all those who fought for this nation, and to realize that after nearly 250 years of democratic self-governance, the leader we present to the world is this.
We must ask why. Amid a constant stream of bad news, members of his own party publicly distancing themselves from him, and hourly growing concerns about his health, why did he spend his first public appearance in over a week attacking a journalist for not smiling? The answer is simple: he is trying to discredit those whose job it is to tell us the truth, because what is happening is too damaging to him. If he can make us stop trusting the media, then what the media reports no longer matters. That is the entire game.
We must understand this game, because it is far more than one journalist and a bad afternoon. When an authoritarian can no longer reliably produce their own propaganda, and when that person themselves begins to slur their words, lose focus, and is hastily led away from the room, the machine surrounding them does not stop demanding propaganda. It simply needs someone else to carry it out. And so, it reaches out to seize institutions that belong to everyone. It takes over the media.
We saw this scene on CBS this week. Scott Pelley, who worked for the network for 37 years, was fired. The day before, at an employee meeting, he accused the new management of "killing the show"—referring to 60 Minutes, renowned for its accountability journalism. He then released a written statement confirming many of our worst fears. He said the new management had demanded that he insert false content and bias into a politically sensitive report. He stated that he was asked to include unverified claims, which he had so far refused to do. He said politicians were being invited to choose which journalists would interview them. He also said the network’s new owners were sidelining the program, in his words, to "curry favor with the Trump administration."
CBS no longer exists. Its independence and credibility have vanished along with it. We are likely to lose CNN as well. They won’t stop. We will continue to lose these mainstream media outlets one by one, because those who own them have done the math. It’s easier to make money telling people what the strongman wants them to hear than telling them the truth. The truth has no oligarchs backing it, but lies have bottomless pockets. These corporate leaders have seen how this president rewards loyalty and punishes others, so they’ve decided to take as much as they can while they still can—even if they don’t believe it will last. They don’t care whether it lasts; they only care about what’s right in front of them.
So, this burden will increasingly fall on those without deep pockets—independent journalists, investigative reporters, writers, and creators, especially during dark times, who still show up every day, often at real personal cost. Our nation cannot survive once these voices are silenced, for a country where its people do not know what is happening to them is not a free country. You can already see what a lack of awareness leads to. Many around us have no real understanding of what is actually occurring. And those who actively seek the truth are increasingly finding only the versions that others have paid to feed them.
When I began writing these articles, I made a promise: whenever this administration attacks the media, attacks the First Amendment, or attacks the American people’s right to hold power accountable, I will name it. Today, Trump did exactly that—and I am naming it. This is an attack on our right to know, on our right to understand how this government is dismantling the nation. To every journalist and media member, he sent a direct message: I’m coming for you too. To the public, he said: You cannot believe anything the media tells you. Our response must be this: we will not back down; we will stand with those who continue to speak out and report the truth.
The way to navigate this history is to let our money keep pace with our voice. Every time this government attacks the First Amendment, we respond by funding those who defend it. This is the most direct form of resistance we can take right now. Independent media is how truth continues to exist when all other systems have been captured. I have been writing every night for a year, without corporate backing or sponsored funding. No one can reach into my articles and change a single word. Every article I write is free for everyone, because truth should not be locked behind a paywall. But all of this is possible because some people have chosen to support this work through paid memberships, because they understand what is happening and have chosen to stand with it. Thank you for standing with me in resistance.
Tonight, I ask you again to think beyond just my voice. Think of every writer, journalist, podcaster, and independent media outlet you turn to when you need the truth. Think of those still enduring endless attacks in their email inboxes while facing mounting pressure from the federal government. Think of those who continue speaking out, even when doing so comes at a great personal cost. Because what this government is trying to build requires our silence—and our most powerful action right now is ensuring that those who refuse to be silent can keep going. Every paid subscription to an independent voice is a vote against the words and actions of Trump and his supporters.
Trump’s growing desperation stems from the fact that on the same day the U.S. president attacked a journalist and their television network, the House of Representatives passed a war powers resolution demanding he end the war in Iran. The vote was 215 to 208, with four Republicans defecting to support the resolution.
It still needs to go through the Senate. Procedurally, it’s largely symbolic. But that’s not the point. The point is that members of his own party have finally broken ranks and voted against him. This is Trump’s greatest fear: disloyalty. Someone said no. Someone realized they should fear their voters more than they fear him. This is exactly what made this person so agitated during today’s event.
Because that’s exactly what he is doing right now—he is pushing people past the tipping point. This man’s cruelty, paranoia, and growing intolerance for any sign of minor disloyalty are causing him to lose those who once protected him. They watch him speak incoherently, drift mentally, and lash out everywhere, and they are beginning to weigh the costs. One by one, they start to pull away. This is why I still have hope for America. You should too.
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