July 2017

On a Wednesday night in June in Cedar Rapids (IA) it was just like old times for Right Side Broadcasting. Live on YouTube, hosts Steve Lookner and Liz Willis interviewed people sporting “Make America Great Again” hats, who waited eagerly in line to watch President Trump take the stage at a jam-packed, campaign-style rally. Some of the Trump fans doubled as Right Side fans, and asked Lookner and Willis to pose for selfies in their branded polos. After generating $1.1 million in advertising revenue and donations in 2016, Right Side entertained grand expansion plans. Founder Joe Seales told Business Insider last fall that he wanted to add news shows to his company's YouTube channel and build toward 24-hour programming. Instead, Right Side has been forced to cut back amid steep revenue declines. A staff of 12 is down to four. Shows hosted by Mike Cernovich, Wayne Dupree, Margaret Howell and Nicholas J. Fuentes have been canceled. Far from seeing a gusher of donations from energized Trump supporters, Seales said he has been propping up Right Side Broadcasting with money from his own pocket.

Teaming up with Right Side on webcasts before Election Day fueled speculation that former reality TV star Donald Trump might launch a television channel, if the vote didn't go his way. When CNN asked campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon about the prospect of “Trump TV” in October, the former Breitbart News chairman smiled and said, “Trump is an entrepreneur.” According to Seales, Right Side never discussed going into business with Trump in the event of a defeat.

An official from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said the department's science division is staffed, despite a report saying the last three employees of the division left last week. It was reported on June 30 that the three staffers, who were holdovers from the Obama administration, departed the office last week, leaving the science division unstaffed. However, an OSTP official said there are currently 35 employees in OSTP, and 12 employees in the department's science division, adding that the division is organized and divided differently under the Trump administration compared to the Obama administration.