“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” In that proclamation from President Trump, more than a few observers noted an echo of George Orwell’s 1984: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” (Editor’s note: I’m not implying that Trump read the book.) Indeed, the battle to determine what’s happening has come to define this American moment. And according to the NYT, the truth battlefield extends all the way to the television screens aboard Air Force One. Spotting CNN on a TV Aboard Air Force One, Trump Rages Against Reality. “The channel-flipping flap was the latest example of how Mr. Trump, at a pivotal moment in his presidency, is increasingly living in a world of selected information and bending the truth to his own narrative.” (Bending the truth in the sense that a jackhammer bends concrete…)

+ While the president urged Americans not to believe what they see or read, it was what they heard in the Michael Cohen tapes that grabbed the latest headlines. From The Atlantic: All the President’s Hush Money. “Not since Richard Nixon discussed paying off E. Howard Hunt for the Watergate burglary has a president been caught on tape seeking to muffle the emergence of negative stories with cash.” (I predict three distinct reaction to this recording. From Liberals: “The tape is a smoking gun.” From Trump’s Base: “The tape is fake news.” From Millennials: “What’s cash?”)

+ Vox: The Trump-Cohen tape, explained.

+ CNN: White House stops announcing calls with foreign leaders.

+ Somewhat Related: Why are there so many suckers? A neuropsychologist explains.