We were promptly smeared, de-monetized by Google, briefly banned on Twitter (now X) and generally sneered at by the mainstream media, with accompanying ill-informed hit pieces. 

We took this as a badge of honor, given we simply asked questions which the majority of non-DC beltway commemorati, i.e.: normal middle Americans, wanted to know. Fast-forward to President Trump taking the White House, and times have drastically changed, especially seen in the fact that America's Commander-in-Chief actually regularly and openly engages with the press - something which was missing in action during four years of sleepy Joe Biden. Major events and the obvious questions and angles which most of the American public naturally thought should be subject of frank open debate and inquiry were not even asked, as the State Dept and White House press pool MSM members were regularly rewarded for posing 'safe' questions on which there was 'establishment consensus'. This is how "access" typically works in the beltway swamp after all.

Again, times have changed and with that welcome shift comes your very own ZeroHedge correspondent, recently admitted into the White House press pool under the administration's new media policy. Finally the people can have a voice, outside the domineering 'gatekeeping' of the likes of CNN, NBC, ABC, Washington Post, and the list goes on. 

Exhibit A: on Monday "Tyler Durden" engaged directly with the president, first expressing appreciation that Trump broke the MSM gatekeeping stranglehold over who is allowed into government briefing rooms, and then asking the kind of question high on ZH readers' minds. Watch: