As a result, McEnany’s move to join the official Trump team is less an act of extremism than it is an act of honesty. At least she has now embraced her role as a Trump shill rather than masquerading as something else. Given the reality of McEnany’s previously prescribed role, the pearl clutching and cries of “political campaign propaganda” from CNN’s Reliable Sources reek of disingenuousness. Arguably, CNN’s role in this game was more pernicious, given its insistence that it provides news and not entertainment. CNN, you will note, is the network that hired former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a political commentator after he had both signed a non-disclosure agreement that precluded him from criticizing his former boss and assaulted reporter Michelle Fields. Physicians, heal thyselves.

CNN aside, there’s also a question of where these same #resistance critics have been the last eight years. Where were the howls of outrage when President Obama campaigned for reelection with the “Truth Team” initiative, which recruited supporters to refute “unfounded attacks” on AttackWatch.com, or launched his own weekly Web show, West Wing Week? That Web show, produced by the White House Office of Digital Strategy — and thus paid for by American taxpayers — ran as a feel-good mockumentary where Trump TV’s videos are rapid-fire infomercials. But better editing and a softer tone do not make the former any less propagandistic. Indeed, it was arguably more so, given that Trump seems to be bankrolling his own show, which appears on social-media channels that are paid for by his official PAC, Donald J. Trump for President.