The Department of Justice filed a brief defending Trump's decision to ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House. They called press access a privilege. Not a right.
That's the legal argument. White House access is something the government grants you if you behave. Like a good boy sticker. Or parole.
The DOJ also claimed Trump acted out of national security concerns. National security. The threat wasn't foreign intelligence or terrorist cells. It was Jim Acosta asking follow-up questions.
This means somewhere in the Department of Justice, lawyers sat in a conference room and workshopped the phrase "CNN is a national security risk." They billed hours for that. They wrote drafts. They had edits. Version four was probably too aggressive. Version seven didn't capture the gravitas. They landed on version nine and felt good about their work.
The beautiful part is this has nothing to do with markets. Zero impact on your portfolio. But traders will somehow convince themselves this matters. They'll check futures. They'll refresh their brokerage app. They'll tell themselves media access policy is a leading indicator for small-cap momentum.
It's not.
Trump could ban every outlet except a guy named Derek with a Blogspot account and the S&P would still close wherever it was going to close. Earnings don't care about press credentials. Revenue doesn't care who sits in the briefing room. But you'll read sixteen think pieces about what this means for tech stocks anyway.
MS NOW, CNN and Politico can't get into the building. Somehow you think this information helps you time the market. It doesn't. You're just addicted to feeling like you're paying attention.
The DOJ brief is thirty pages long and none of them tell you whether to buy calls or puts.
Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash
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