Well, well, well—another day, another “oopsie” from the mainstream media. This time, the Associated Press had to yank an article from circulation after falsely claiming that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard described President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very good friends.” The problem? Gabbard never said anything of the sort. She was actually talking about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
You’d think that with all the self-proclaimed “journalistic integrity” floating around, someone at AP would have taken the five seconds necessary to verify what Gabbard actually said before running with a conveniently anti-Trump headline. But no, because that wouldn’t fit the preferred narrative, would it? Instead, they falsely attributed comments to her and published an entire piece about Trump and Putin’s supposed buddy-buddy relationship—only to have to retract it when the actual facts inconveniently got in the way.
The misquoted remarks came from an interview Gabbard did with India’s NDTV, where she spoke about the deep ties between the U.S. and India, emphasizing the friendship between Modi and Trump. “We have two leaders of our two great countries who are very good friends and are very focused on how we can strengthen those shared objectives and those shared interests,” she said. Not a word about Putin. Not a syllable. But that didn’t stop the AP from jumping to conclusions and running a headline that perfectly fit the usual anti-Trump hysteria.
And let’s talk about the way AP framed this little “mistake.” Their now-deleted article painted Gabbard’s supposed comments as yet another alarming sign of Trump’s dangerously close ties to Moscow. It even went as far as claiming that her “words” would alarm critics worried about Trump cozying up to Russia. The article suggested that she had essentially parroted Russian propaganda, all based on statements she quite literally never made.
The AP did eventually issue a retraction—after the damage was already done. Their half-hearted correction stated, “AP has removed its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends’ because it did not meet our standards.” Oh, so now you have standards? Interesting. Where were those standards when the original story was slapped together and published without so much as a fact-check?
Don’t be like Michael, don’t spread fake news. https://t.co/RD1xWRZWDX pic.twitter.com/2lHzyJhlhU
— Alex Pfeiffer (@Pfeiffer47) March 18, 2025
Gabbard’s deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, didn’t hold back, calling out the AP’s blatant bias on X (formerly Twitter). “The @AP is total trash,” she wrote. “DNI @TulsiGabbard was referring to PM Modi & President Trump and this is the headline they publish.” She went on to say, “This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully biased media.” And honestly, she’s not wrong.
This isn’t just an innocent mistake—it’s part of a pattern. Mainstream outlets like AP, CNN, and the New York Times have spent years peddling the narrative that Trump is some kind of Kremlin puppet, regardless of the facts. Every so-called “bombshell” about Trump and Russia—from the Steele dossier to the Mueller investigation—has crumbled under scrutiny, but that hasn’t stopped the press from continuing to push the same tired storyline.
The Associated Press was forced to withdraw one of its Monday articles after it falsely claimed that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called President Trump and Russian President Putin “very good friends.” https://t.co/shlh6usjiz
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 18, 2025
If this had been a simple error, one would expect a real attempt at damage control. Instead, the original false report remains on many websites that use AP’s feed, meaning that people who didn’t catch the correction will be left believing something that was never true in the first place. That’s how the media plays the game: publish first, push the narrative, and if the truth gets in the way later, offer a quiet retraction that most people won’t see.
This isn’t about journalism—it’s about shaping public perception. And as long as the mainstream media continues to operate with one goal in mind—undermining Trump and anyone associated with him—expect more “mistakes” like this one in the future.
