The most significant example of disinformation is partisan fabrication woven into assumptions of the policy making process. Misinformation damages public discourse, of course, but falsehoods at the root of policy can have far-reaching consequences for the U.S. legal system. We can see this hidden role of “fake news” in Executive Orders of Trump’s second term. 

Shortly after taking office, the new administration issued the Executive Order, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The order flatly asserts Trump’s partisan attack:

“Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.”

It is no surprise that the administration uses Executive Orders as a partisan tool. Trump has successfully used state power to exact vengeance on political enemies. As he enlists the levers of state to do so, we can see how his self-serving version of reality thorns its way into policy.

Was the Biden administration violating American speech freedoms as the premise of the order would have us believe? The courts did not agree. Conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett found “[t]he plaintiffs fail, by and large, to link their past social-media restrictions and the defendants’ [Biden administration] communications with the platforms.” 

Twitter executives, dragged before the Republican-run House Oversight Committee, denied a similar charge that Democrats had coerced Twitter to remove information about President Biden’s son, Hunter. 

And yet, there it is, shaping policy priorities for the federal government.

In many ways, this is classic Trump governance. Executive Order as rhetorical attack. Perpetual campaigning; little meaningful governance. When policy grows from misperception or misinformation, it hobbles policy as a solution to American problems.

The bellicose language of the order illustrates something unique about the administration. Exaggeration and partisan attacks replace more precise legal language that is more common in policy documents meant to give direction and legal structure to American citizens and industries.  

Misinformation becomes a more urgent problem when falsehoods infect legislative and legal actions. They underscore a MAGA style of governance: reorient the levers of policy-making to serve partisan spectacle. The consequences are concerning. Policy efforts are misdirected. The public is falsely reassured. Government resources are wasted as federal workers try to take action on an issue the president imagined into existence. The irony is thick as Trump sues and cajoles private news media companies. America tilts at Trump’s windmills while real problems go unaddressed.