Khaled Al Soutari, who was inside the six-story residential building in western Gaza City that collapsed on September 16, is now sleeping on the street without a tent, devastated by the loss of 21 of his neighbors. “They were more than just neighbors to me,” Al Soutari told me when I interviewed him two days after the building collapse, sitting on the street with a group of his neighbors next…
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After the 2020 presidential election that resulted in a clear victory for Joe Biden, Donald Trump tried mightily to overturn the outcome. He has persistently insisted to this day that he won and Biden lost. On January 6, 2021, Trump ordered then-Vice President Mike Pence to violate his constitutional duty to certify the duly elected electors before the joint session of Congress by counting only…
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to arrive in New York City on Thursday for the UN General Assembly – where he is expected to defend his warmongering in Iran and Gaza in a speech during the afternoon. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has presided over the nearly three-year-long genocide in Gaza – which has killed at least 75,000 Palestinians…
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This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 19 episode of “Connect with Jacob Soboroff.”
In Trump-era politics, there’s the rhetoric, then there’s the reality — and sometimes those two worlds collide.
I’ve seen it firsthand while reporting on U.S. immigration policy. Contradiction comes up constantly between the hard-line anti-immigrant talk and the industries that privately benefit from undocumented labor.
Take, for example, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a politician who has positioned himself as a champion of President Donald Trump’s deportation push. His words have been pretty clear-cut when it comes to immigration. In a December post on X, Pillen wrote, “The criminal illegal aliens who have invaded our country must be removed so they no longer pose a threat to our people. I will do everything in my power to ensure Nebraska continues to stand strong with President Trump to get the job done.”
Not all heroes wear capes, but many wear badges. And these six Omaha Police Officers are heroes. The criminal illegal aliens who have invaded our country must be removed so they no longer pose a threat to our people. I will do everything in my power to ensure Nebraska continues… https://t.co/i9kYL7Pi8t— Governor Jim Pillen (@TeamPillen) December 5, 2025
And Pillen has seemingly acted on that: He has dispatched state troopers to partner directly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on arrests, and he’s converted a shuttered state prison into a mass detention facility, grossly referred to as “Cornhusker Clink.”
But there’s another side of the story.
Three decades ago, the governor founded Pillen Family Farms, a massive hog enterprise that now has about 100 farms across Nebraska. Since taking office,
Presidents who restrict the press have usually cited some other justification: security, space constraints, matters of decorum. President Donald Trump has stripped away any pretense. On Saturday, he expelled MS NOW, CNN and Politico journalists from the White House in what he himself referred to as a “ban on the free press.”
His announcement on Truth Social on Friday left little doubt about the reason: He dislikes what journalists at those outlets report. News outlets, he wrote, “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” about him. He did not point to a single story he considered false. In the Oval Office on Friday, he was more explicit still. “I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” he said. “If they could straighten themselves out, I would love it.”
That bluntness is what sets this moment apart. It removes any doubt that the president is using access to the White House to punish speech he dislikes.
That matters well beyond the three outlets involved, and it clarifies what fights over White House access have always been about. Who gets into the Oval Office, who gets a seat on Air Force One, who gets a chair in the briefing room — from the outside, those questions can look like vanity and ego. But they are about something deeper: how much the public gets to see and know about its own government. If access to the White House comes to depend on coverage that the president likes, the public will increasingly see what the president likes. That is not a free press.
This ban is the latest step on
I barely slept Friday night after President Donald Trump issued his threat.
The president posted on Truth Social that he intended to ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House. But neither he nor his staff explained exactly how it would be implemented or enforced.
My colleagues were able to stay on the White House grounds Friday until about 8:30 p.m. before all reporters were required to leave around 10. I was scheduled to work the weekend shift, and I knew there was a chance my press badge would be confiscated. So I prepared. I stayed up until 1 a.m. thinking through what I would need for live reporting in the morning. I woke up at 6:30, half an hour before our photographer was due to arrive.
At 7:02 am., he texted: “They took my pass and I’m back outside.”
“I’m rushing over,” I texted back.
My producer and I decided to walk into the White House together. As we entered a security checkpoint, I didn’t recognize either of the Secret Service officers on duty. We exchanged “good morning” pleasantries and the two men continued having a casual conversation.
We walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, which has been closed to the public amid heightened security precautions and increased threats on the president. When we arrived at the press entrance on the North Lawn, we noticed two media cameras set up at the end of a path designated for passholders, perhaps anticipating our arrival. I flashed my badge and was waved through, as usual. Inside, I greeted the officers and placed my phone into a bucket and through the conveyor belt to be screened.
Then I scanned