Donald Trump Posted Videos of Animals Mauling People

Trump’s desensitized audience

Last night, I stumbled on people discussing something rather unusual: the president of the United States posting videos of animals mauling people on the social media platform he personally owns.

Lee Moran at Huffpost reports:

“Donald Trump drew fierce condemnation after sharing disturbing footage on his Truth Social platform of a man being attacked by a tiger, after entering its enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster, in northern England, this weekend.

“William Chapman died from his injuries. …

“Trump on Tuesday shared footage of part of the attack with his millions of followers on Truth Social, captioning the clip: ‘Don’t ever mess with nature!’

“He signed the post with his own name.

“The White House also shared the clip on X.

“The president followed up shortly afterward with another video featuring a montage that appeared to show people being attacked by lions, accompanied by upbeat music. At least some of the clips appeared to be AI-generated.”

If Obama or Biden or hell, George W. Bush had done anything remotely like this, it would have dominated the news cycle for weeks. You know it, I know it.

But I don’t think that the explanation for the difference rests with the press, necessarily. Here are outlets I found that covered the story this morning in addition to Huffpost:

• Washington Post: Trump posts video of man being attacked by tiger
• Newsweek: Donald Trump Posts AI Video of Himself Tackling Killer Zoo Tiger
• Rolling Stone: Why Is the President Posting Videos of Animals Mauling People?
• The New Republic: Why Is Trump Sharing So Many Videos of Animals Maiming Humans?
• Forbes: Trump Posts Videos Of Violent Animal Attacks In Warning To Never 'Mess With Nature'
• RawStory: Disgust after Trump posts brutal videos of animal attacks: 'The president is a sick man'
• Daily Beast: Trump Posts Sick Footage of Tiger Mauling Vulnerable Man

This story has received coverage. The New York Times has not covered it, though they may, as they don’t tend to prioritize being first for these kinds of stories. Right-wing media has not covered it, because they do not care.

The Washington Post, the biggest outlet of the list, even has the story above the fold, albeit quite small:

Not that I’m complaining about the story they do feature prominently (although their framing appears to be quite bad).

When it comes to the failure of the media in the Trump era, an underrated aspect is that the audience gets a vote, and the audience is more capricious than we might like. I am not saying that Trump’s bizarre animal murder snuff porn posting is a more important story than his attempt to deport an elected representative that opposes him—far from it. But I am suggesting it is bad that audiences would care if an otherwise respectable and responsible president behaved the same way, but couldn't care less when an incompetent, corrupt, and immoral would-be dictator does it.

Trump gets graded on a curve. It is infuriating, but it is the reality we in the pro-democracy coalition must face. What is worse, I do not truly believe it is the media who grades him on a curve. I believe that in the case of many mainstream outlets outside the right-wing echo chamber, pro-democracy framing was tried, and what they found is by and large it simply did not land. The audience yawned, and the media adapted accordingly. This is, in many ways, the core challenge of the current crisis. More than the hardcore MAGA loyalists so deep in the personality cult that they cannot possibly be reached, a selectively indifferent public overall is not good for the long-term prospects of our democracy.

The corruption continues

By far the worst corruption of the second Trump administration has been the use of pardons for political purposes.

Reuters has a report showing that these pardons unsurprisingly skew to Republicans. Don’t worry, though—like everything else in this administration, if you’re not a Republican or Trump crony you can get a pardon for the right price.

A few more items on the corruption docket:

Tariq Panja in the New York Times writes:

“About a year before the World Cup, FIFA held a splashy opening for its latest office, a 17th-floor suite in Trump Tower. President Trump’s son Eric Trump said his family’s organization was ‘honored’ to host the global soccer body.

“FIFA signed a more than seven-year lease, worth about $4 million, according to two officials directly involved in the deal and documents reviewed by The New York Times. The suite mostly sits empty.”

Peter Nicholas and Sarah Mimms at NBC News report that The Trust for the National Mall has collected $320 million, from several large unknown donors, ostensibly for Trump’s ballroom project.

And of course, we cannot conclude a section on corruption without saying Ken Paxton’s name: Matthew Choi in the Washington Post reports that Paxton received campaign donations from parties in legal cases he was involved in as Texas’s attorney general.

Retaliation

House Republicans decided to get in on the action this week. Jenny Gathright in the Washington Sun writes:

“The House committee overseeing local D.C. affairs has launched an investigation into ‘politicized jury nullification initiatives by left-wing activist groups,’ Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) announced Tuesday.

“The investigation is so far targeting two D.C. organizations, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams and Free DC, which have hosted a series of trainings called the Juror Information Project. Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, alleges the groups are advocating for the long-debated practice of jury nullification, which happens when a juror opts to acquit someone—even if they think the accused person is technically guilty—because they object to the law or to the decision by prosecutors to charge the person.”

These groups are doing nothing illegal and they almost certainly have nothing to do with the string of no-bills that the administration has faced from grand juries, and losses in court. These have everything to do with the frivolous nature of the charges and the complete clownshow of incompetence from the Trump DOJ.

Meanwhile Lora Kolodny at CNBC reports on a more typical example of retaliation from the administration itself:

“A federal magistrate judge in Virginia ruled that Elon Musk engaged in ‘state sanctioned intimidation’ of ex-FEMA CFO Mary Comans when he posted falsehoods on X last year accusing her of ‘criminal action’ and of ‘funneling $58 million to illegal migrant hotels in Manhattan.’

“Musk, the world’s richest person, was working for the Trump administration as the head of DOGE when he shared those posts on Feb. 11, 2025. The Department of Homeland Security said the next day it was firing Comans and three colleagues, and labeled them ‘deep state activists.’

“In Tuesday’s order, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick cleared Comans’ name.”

We will be hearing about the details of cases like these for years and years to come.

The greatest teacher

Around Liberal Currents

• “A Hard Look at Libertarianism,” by Janet Bufton: Quinn Slobodian's 2025 book provides the starting point of a more thorough post-mortem.
• “Better Win a District: Arkansas’s Second,” by Alan Elrod: There have been many near-misses at dislodging Rep. French Hill ever since the state hard-shifted from blue to red in 2010.
• “Checks and Balances Will Not Save Us,” by Steven L. Taylor: A Democratically controlled Congress will have some tools to deploy, but not as many as some may hope.
• “Editor's Notes: Taking Ideology Seriously,” by Samantha Hancox-Li: The power of the ideological environment should not be underestimated.
• “Dreaming of a Blue Texas” (Out of the Jaws #13, with Jesse Dollemore): On apocalyptic thought in the evangelical community, the role of liberal media in the struggle against fascism, and more.
• “At First ICE Loses, Then It Flies, Flies Again” (Half the Answer #107, with Gillian Brockell): ICE has been transporting people in inhumane conditions to countries to which they have no affiliation or connection.
• “We Squandered It! Why the World Is on Fire” (Neon Liberalism #94, with Ben Wittes): How we went from the triumph of the fall of the Berlin Wall to our current world.
• “Graft the Likes of Which the World Has Never Seen Before” (Half the Answer #108, with Zach Everson): Donald Trump made more than two billion dollars in the first year of his second term.

On the trashfire 

• Ukraine Says New Limits on Starlink Are Disrupting Its Military Operations, by Anastasiia Malenko, Alistair MacDonald and Ievgeniia Sivorka in the Wall Street Journal
• 'A Positive Step': Hungary Removes Anti-LGBTQ Provisions from Orban-Era Law, by FRANCE 24
• Oregon Elections Chief Urges Early Voting as Test of USPS Service Shows Slow Mail Service, by Alex Baumhardt in the Oregon Capital Chronicle
• Choose Your Overlord: Musk vs Bezos, by Josh Tyrangiel in the Atlantic
• The Mystery of the Unknown Sailor Who Inspired Trump to Shake Up the Navy, by Marcus Weisgerber in the Wall Street Journal
• The Clampdown Continues, by Andrea Pitzer at Degenerate Art
• CBS’ Foreign Explosion, by Oliver Darcy at Status
• Off-duty ICE Agent Shot by Man Defending Family, Fresno Police Say: No Charges Filed, by Anthony Galaviz in the Fresno Bee
• Most Americans Oppose Betting on Elections, Government Events, Reuters/Ipsos Poll Finds, by Chris Prentice and Jason Lange for Reuters

At the end