In May, near the end of the fight for the Republican presidential nomination, the National Enquirer tabloid ran an odd story suggesting Ted Cruz’s father was somehow involved in the JFK assassination. Donald Trump quickly embraced the story, touting the National Enquirer‘s track record for accuracy.In July, literally the day after Trump accepted the GOP nomination, he continued to talk about the National Enquirer‘s report, insisting the tabloid “should be very respected” and deserves “Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting.”All of this came to mind yesterday when the National Enquirer‘s latest cover started making the rounds. In the upper-left corner, there’s an anti-Clinton story; in the upper-right corner, there’s an anti-Obama story; but the bulk of the cover is devoted to celebrating the president-elect.The main headline, in all caps, reads, “Trump Takes Charge.” It’s followed by a series of bullet points, including:* “Success in just 36 days!”* “Saved jobs from going to Mexico”* “Slapped down arrogant China”* “Tearing up dangerous U.S.-Iran nuke deal!”* “Peace between Israel and its enemies!”* “Apple’s 4.5 million jobs coming home!”None of this should be seen as satire, by the way. This is the actual cover. Each of these claims is highly dubious, but people who pass by supermarket aisles may not know that.In late September, Bloomberg Politics reported on the “love affair” between the Republican and the tabloid, and it appears the relationship is still going strong.The oddity of our political circumstances are hard to overstate. The next president of the United States doesn’t trust U.S. intelligence agencies, climate scientists, or civil servants at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but he believes the National Enquirer “should be very respected.”And by all appearances, the tabloid feels the same way about Donald Trump.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."