Vice President @JDVance: "If you're going to engage in what effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican White House give you special access?"
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) September 21, 2026
"They still have the access to free speech. They're just not going to get an office in the White House anymore."
"I think… pic.twitter.com/hPIonF2aLk
Perhaps the 92% figure cited by Vance is totally made up. Or maybe he means only 8% of stories from Politico, MSNOW, and CNN kiss Trump's posterior.
In either case, it appears that the Vice President was not asked what constitutes "negative", though it would have nice if he had been asked. But we do know what the President believes is not a "fake news media outlet" because we learned two months ago from Fox News that
President Donald Trump is striking a noticeably softer tone
toward China just days after delivering a public address to the nation accusing
Beijing of "sinister election meddling."
The fresh set of accusations levied on July 16 raised new questions about the Trump administration's posture towards China, especially as it moves to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. while warning against the hostility of the world power against America.
"President Trump just told the nation that China tried to influence the 2020 election and weaken his presidency. During that same year, the intelligence community identified TikTok as a primary vector of CCP influence in the United States," Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Sobolik, who specializes in U.S.–China relations, told Fox News Digital
"Beijing still controls the algorithm, which means that
the very dangers Trump raised persist today," Sobolik added.
Trump has long taken a hard line on China, using tariffs,
trade pressure and national security warnings to frame Beijing as one of
America's chief adversaries.
In his recent address to the nation, the president accused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of running a "sinister" campaign to interfere in U.S. elections and influence Americans and undermine his presidency.
Yet just five days later, on July 21, Trump suggested "China is maybe a little bit different today." It struck a softer tone that falls more in line with the president's backing of a deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S., despite seeking during his first term and at the start of his second to force the app out over national security concerns.
"The CCP hasn’t changed. Xi Jinping hasn’t changed. But President Trump has," Sobolik detailed.
"He’s much more conciliatory toward China in his second term than he was in his first. He risks telegraphing significant weakness to Xi by letting China off the hook."
Trump downplayed Beijing's past election interference,
suggesting both countries engage in similar tactics and indicating he was more
focused on future negotiations than revisiting China's actions.
The partiality toward TikTok has had real-world implications. Exactly two years after Hamas started the present war with Israel, The Washington Post (possibly behind a paywall) reported
U.S.-based TikTok posters still show overwhelming support for Palestinians as the war rages on in Gaza, according to a report published Tuesday by the nonpartisan research center Cybersecurity for Democracy. It found that for every pro-Israel post that appeared on TikTok in September there were roughly 17 posts supporting Palestinians. That finding, based on an analysis of hashtags that users attach to their posts, is roughly the same as what the center found nearly two years ago.
In return, American investors will control more than 65% of TikTok's ownership, along with the Emirati investment fund MGX, headed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which will acquire a 15% stake.
Among the American investors who will acquire TikTok's US operations is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who donated more than $26 million to the Friends of the “Israel” Defense Forces.
Oracle has also cooperated with the Israeli government in technology and military infrastructure, and Ellison previously offered Netanyahu a seat on the company's board and invited him to his private island in Hawaii.
The United Arab Emirates during the first Trump Administration signed the Abraham Accords and recognized Israel's existence and reportedly informed the Israeli government of an impending attack prior to Hamas' terroristic invasion of 10/7/23. Larry Ellison is staunchly pro-Israel, as allegedly are a couple of other investors.
So we may be in the process of converting an extraordinarily powerful social media platform from one antagonistic to Israel to one very friendly not only to the nation, but also to its right-wing government.
This is an improvement primarily because the Butchers of Beijing will, presumably, have less influence on the videos TikTok makes available, especially to impressionable, ill-informed youth. Additionally, it's very likely that the pro-Israel slant will be not as ridiculous as the anti-Israel bias has been.
Nevertheless, this is not good. The remedy for effective, extremist propaganda castigating a democratic nation is not contrary propaganda, just as reverse discrimination is not dramatically superior to discrimination.
TikTok is bad news, both literally and figuratively. It has been extremely bad news and in the future, probably only very bad news. It has presented alternative facts which have become alternative reality for a good chunk of young Americans who cannot be bothered by the front page of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, or practically anything not accompanied by video. So of course Donald Trump is partial to it: "I like TikTok. It helped get me elected."
Trump loves himself some TikTok while Politico, MSNOW, and CNN are "fake news" precisely because they report fact, detail, and occasionally context, all things alien to TikTok. Donald Trump frequently whines about imaginary fake news outlets. But when it comes to hogwash, he's like a pig at the trough.
