Trump Blasts Apple News After Study Claims “Zero” Conservative Top Stories in January
Donald Trump is attacking Apple News again, sharing a study on TRUTH Social that claims the app’s “top stories” are excluding conservative outlets. The fight matters now because it’s no longer just a media argument — it’s drawing attention from federal regulators.
The core tension is whether the Apple News “top stories” section is an editorial product with subjective choices, or a consumer-facing service that should match what users believe they’re getting when it comes preloaded on iPhones.
Trump’s post links to a report built around Media Research Center findings that reviewed Apple News stories featured in January 2026. The watchdog claims it tracked 620 high-traffic featured stories and found 440 from left-leaning outlets, 180 from centrist outlets, and none from right-leaning sources.
The complication is that Apple News is not purely algorithmic, according to the same coverage, and critics say that makes the question less about personalization and more about who decides what gets surfaced by default.
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An Apple spokesperson said the News app “provides access to news… from more than 3,000 publications,” and users can tailor feeds by following or blocking publications or topics.
That dispute has also reached Washington, with FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson warning Apple CEO Tim Cook that if Apple’s practices are inconsistent with its terms or reasonable consumer expectations, they “may violate the FTC Act.”
Reporting from Reuters and the Associated Press says Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FTC letter, while the letter itself frames the issue as potential consumer deception rather than “speech policing.”
Next steps are likely to center on whether Apple answers the FTC’s concerns, and whether lawmakers push for disclosures or audits of how Apple News selects “featured” stories.
For now, Trump’s post is keeping the spotlight on Apple’s curation choices — and inviting more scrutiny of how the default feed is built.
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