The government is shut down. ICE is being deployed to cities. The Epstein Files. The economy is in recession. War with Iran. It can be hard to filter through all the headlines, especially when it seems that each day brings the biggest headline of the year — that is, until the next day’s headlines come out.
The constant stream of headlines can be overwhelming for even the most hardened and jaded of news readers. Since 2016, Americans are 15 percent less likely to report that they don’t read the news closely, and more likely overall to report that they feel overwhelmed by politics. It’s hard to stay up-to-date on the news when every day is more “unprecedented” than the last.
As news fatigue spreads, an increasing number of people are reporting that they distance themselves from political news for the sake of their mental health. News journalism has become a game of reaching an audience, and it seems to be a losing one.
Not only are people less likely to consume news, but Americans are also increasingly reliant on social media for their daily and political news coverage. 76 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 say that they get news from social media, while only 28 percent say that they give some credibility to news sourced from social media. Even though Americans rely on social media more than ever before for their news, there seems to be a gap in trust for political news consumed online.
This could in part be attributed to the rise in AI content on social media platforms. When many users cannot tell the difference between a real headline and an AI-generated one, it becomes difficult to trust news sources on social media to deliver reliable, accurate news.
Alternatively, the rhetoric used by Donald Trump about the news media, which he often refers to as the “fake news media,” has promoted widespread distrust of even major traditional news sources. A recent study out of Pew Research Center reported that trust in major news outlets has declined considerably in recent years.
This is being used as a political tactic to distract people from real issues. Sowing distrust in major news networks while simultaneously spreading misinformation and overflowing news cycles to make it impossible to stay focused on any one topic, the Trump administration has successfully distracted the American people from real issues and will continue to do so if left unchecked.
The administration has discovered just how effective riding out the news cycle is when they can ignore an issue and eventually let newer headlines replace the outrage over the last. One of the most useful tools in Donald Trump’s toolbox is his skill for using his personal social media to rile his base of supporters and to attack partisan opponents. From X (formerly Twitter) to his new platform of choice, Truth Social, Donald Trump has condemned major news outlets while flooding “for-you” pages with White House updates and tirades against political enemies. In 2025, Trump posted an average of 18 times a day, sharing anything from major national news to using the bully pulpit to promote his newest Bitcoin.
From every direction, this White House has attempted to spread distrust of the news media while also overwhelming the news cycle with content to distract the American people from the news that they need to hear most. This strategy calmed down the fury over the administration’s refusal to release the entirety of the Epstein files, and seems to be working in response to the recent war in Iran. When people can be distracted, misled, or simply overwhelmed into disengaging, the administration is left unchecked by the court of public opinion.
The consequences of an uninformed electorate with a lower tolerance for political news and high distrust of news media will allow the administration to ride out news cycles that other administrations never would have recovered from. Americans need to be more wary of the capability of a political party left unchecked to disregard the will of the American people when voters can be misinformed so easily, are so distrustful of news sources, and willingly ignore political news. By disengaging with political news, Americans are allowing political parties to make decisions on our behalf without a chance for recourse.
The Zeitgeist aims to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.
