Jonathan Swan

The President Donald Trump re-election campaign sparked widespread confusion inside the Trump administration and the cellular wireless industry March 1 when it advocated for a nationwide "wholesale" 5G network, which is 180 degrees from official White House policy. The Trump campaign is now walking back the statement from Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for Trump’s 2020 campaign, saying they did not intend to set new policy. McEnany said, "The White House sets the policy on 5G and all issues.

Conservative media pose a surprising risk to the Trump administration. While outlets like Fox News' opinion programs provide unstintingly positive coverage of his administration, close presidential advisers and White House officials, as well as the president himself, often lose their inhibitions and make damaging comments when they speak with friendly outlets.

President Donald Trump says railing against his enemies in the media helped him win — and that his supporters like him more when he cranks up the "enemy of the people" rhetoric. President Trump said, "I think I'm doing a service [by attacking the press] when people write stories about me that are so wrong." He said, "I know what I do good and what I do bad. I really get it, OK?

Apple will pledge its support for federal privacy regulations during a Sept 26 Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Expect Apple’s Bud Tribble to underscore the difference between the hardware maker, which doesn’t need to make money from user data, with companies like Google, which have built their business model on it. Tribble, a longtime Apple employee who leads the company’s privacy engineering work, will "convey Apple’s support for comprehensive federal privacy legislation that reflects Apple’s long-held view that privacy is a fundamental human right" during the hearing. "We want your dev

In the early evening of July 9th, President Donald Trump stood in the gold draped East Room of the White House with a small group of senior advisers to rehearse his announcement of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee for the Supreme Court. President Trump stepped on and off the podium, riffing with his aides.

White House leaks come in all shapes and sizes: small leaks, real-time leaks, weaponized leaks, historical leaks. Sensitive Oval Office conversations have leaked, and so have talks in cabinet meetings and the Situation Room. You name it, they leak it. Why does this White House leak like it’s going out of style?

Nothing helps President Donald Trump more — or tightens his hold on his base more securely — than his cozy, mutually-beneficial relationship with conservative TV. Trump's feedback loop, including cable-news coverage, and mainstream-media squawking, convinces the president that he's winning his war on media.

Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth he wants to go after is Amazon. Trump's wealthy friends tell him Amazon is destroying their businesses. His real estate buddies tell him — and he agrees — that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers. President Trump also pays close attention to Amazon founder's ownership of The Washington Post, which the president views as Bezos’ political weapon.

Multimillionaire Republican donor John Jordan says he sometimes feels dirty when politicians beg him for money. "It's kind of like somebody hitting on you," said Jordan. "Sometimes some of them are better than others and some of them just make you feel dirty," he added. "You know the ask is coming when this happens, when they become excessively familiar. When they talk about how they've known you and how they follow your business, and how's it going out there in California. Message: I care."

Jordan has rubbed many political consultants the wrong way by taking a similarly controlling approach in the world of political advertising. Instead of sending checks to super-PACs controlled by consultants, Jordan likes to set up his own super-PACs to keep control over his money and direct his own advertising. He's spent more than $2.7 million on super-PACs over the past three years, according to the Federal Election Commission, but he now believes most super-PAC spending is worthless. "I don't write checks anymore to super-PACs where they let other people spend the money," Jordan said. "One of the dirty little secrets of politics is exactly how dirty the super-PAC world really is. ... The ad makers, the media buyers are just making a killing."