10 Jan

The Media Echo Chamber

“MAGA media reports that everything has been going GREAT for America. Is it true? If so, can it last?” – The Lonely Realist

Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, on December 23^rd wrote an editorial in the New York Post crediting the Trump 2.0 Administration with successfully managing America’s economy…, which, given Mr. Miller’s architectural role in Trump 2.0, is not a revelatory perspective. It is, however, precipitous given that President Trump has been in office for only 11 months. History, after all, teaches that the consequences of structural change reveal themselves slowly – a prominent 21^st Century example is Brexit, which appeared to be quite a success after its first year, but has proven itself disastrous over the next 4. Mr. Miller’s article is entitled “Why do pessimistic pundits keep getting Trump’s economy so wrong?”, in which Mr. Miller accurately points out that America’s stock markets are at record highs, that progressive economists like Paul Krugman – who Mr. Miller derisively notes has “long been the economic sage at the New York Times” — have been flat-out wrong in their doomsday predictions, and that, as The Economist recently observed, it is reasonable to conclude that there is no affordability crisis. Mr. Miller nevertheless ignores the massive money-printing machine that the Trump Administration has put into overdrive (through tax cuts, weakening the Dollar, interest rate cuts/QE, etc.) to levitate the American economy and, in the process, increased America’s debt, deficit and inflation bubbles. He also misstates the economic realities of the Trump tariffs, ignores the fact that during 2025 other nations’ economies and markets outperformed America’s (for example, the S&P 500 index in 2025 lagged the rest of the world by ~10% in Dollar terms, roughly equal to its weakest performance since 1993), relies on overstated Trump Administration GDP growth numbers, and reaches his conclusions by crediting understated Trump Administration inflation and unemployment numbers. Mr. Miller’s motive in authoring the NYP piece was not to provide an even-handed analysis of the President’s economic performance. It was to echo the MAGA mantra for readers of the NYP – which, just as the NYT (and others, including Heather Cox Richardson) are doing on the progressive side – is serving as a feedback mechanism intended to reinforce ingrained beliefs.

In doing so, Mr. Miller is following the modern trend of using an echoic media as a megaphone to turn fiction wishful optimism into fact. Repetition reinforces belief…, and sometimes even engenders it.

There are countless examples in America today of this “echo chamber effect.” TLR previously noted the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump theme repetitions, for example in daily articles by progressive spokesperson Heather Cox Richardson. Both political parties and their media allies have embraced the echo chamber. Only this week, the Trump White House published a webpage claiming that the January 6, 2021 “insurrection” was a Democratic Party fabrication and that Democrats themselves were the actual “insurrectionists,” which the MAGA media promptly repeated. The President has referred to his pardons and commutations of January 6, 2021 “insurrectionists” as fully appropriate to free American “patriots” held “hostage” by the Biden Administration…, also often repeated by the media. Media reinforcement amplifies such characterizations and, consequently, provides confirmation for Americans who hold the office of President in high esteem. The same analysis obtains with respect to the President’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen. A superficially persuasive December 23^rd article in The Federalist reinforces that claim, stating that “5 Years Too Late, Fulton County Proves Trump’s Call To Raffensperger Right,” which was quickly debunked by the Wall Street Journal, hardly an anti-Trump media outlet or an instrument of the Democratic Party. It added that President Trump likely will “never admit his 2020 claims were partisan nonsense,” an observation that was NOT echoed in the MAGA media.

Most media today – on both sides of the political spectrum – have abandoned the search for truth. Facts today are flexible, with the media determined to press truthiness over truth as the most profitable way to attract listeners, readers and watchers (and with audiences trusting their selected media more than their own experience (as evidenced by recent responses to the Minneapolis ICE shooting)). Media consequently are echo chamber validators in today’s post-truth era.

This, however, can have a positive economic impact as well as broader negative ones. For example, widespread belief in the President’s (and Mr. Miller’s) version of economic reality can incentivize investment and economic growth. As John Maynard Keynes noted, if businesses are confident, they will invest, hire workers and plan for expansion, and their increased investments will boost growth. George Soros labeled this “reflexivity,” which he described as “participants’ views influence the course of events, and the course of events influences the participants’ views,” which bounce back-and-forth creating an “echo chamber effect” that cumulates. In the case of Trump 2.0 economic policies, that reflexivity is increasing belief in the Administration’s policies and thereby increasing investment activity.

Those whom Mr. Miller describes in his NYP editorial as “naysaying economic whiz kids” and “faulty forecasting Ivy League PHDs” indeed are mostly Democratic Party sympathizers. However, they are only a small part of an economic majority that includes Trump-supporters who disagree with the President’s economic program and question the long-term viability of actions that, among other things, weaken the Dollar and increase Federal debt and deficits. They believe that Trump 2.0 policies will lead to greater inflation and increasing economic weakness.

The benefit of adroit use of the “echo chamber effect,” precisely the strategy being employed by Trump 2.0, is that it indeed creates support for the President’s policies. If those policies are optimized and if they are well-executed over an appropriate time period, their chances of success will be maximized. If, however, they are flawed, if they are not optimized, if they are not well-executed, or if they are not given sufficient time, their consequences could be catastrophic. It is for that reason that divining “the facts” and delving into “truth” should be the media’s goal…, and not only when it comes to economic realities. In short, Americans should seek truth outside of their favored media and be far more skeptical of their partisan media echo chambers.

Finally (from a good friend)