Boris Epshteyn Leaves Trump White House, Immediately Joins Sinclair Broadcasting as Chief Political Analyst - Direct Trump Propaganda Pipeline

In mid-April 2017, just weeks after quietly departing the Trump White House in March, Boris Epshteyn was hired by Sinclair Broadcast Group as “chief political analyst,” creating a direct propaganda pipeline from the Trump administration to 173 local television stations in 81 markets reaching approximately 40% of American households. Epshteyn’s seamless transition from White House official to mandatory local news commentator exemplified the coordination between the Trump administration and Sinclair’s media empire to circumvent traditional journalism and inject partisan messaging directly into trusted local news broadcasts.

Epshteyn had served as a senior advisor to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, director of communications for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, and then as assistant communications director for surrogate operations in the White House Office of Communications. In this White House role, he oversaw officials who appeared on television to speak on behalf of the administration—essentially booking Trump surrogates for media appearances. His departure from the White House in March 2017 came amid reports that cable news networks “hated him,” following his role crafting the controversial Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that omitted any mention of Judaism.

Sinclair immediately deployed Epshteyn in “Bottom Line With Boris,” 90-to-120-second mandatory commentary segments that local Sinclair stations were required to air during their newscasts. Initially mandated three times per week when he started in April 2017, Sinclair increased the requirement to nine segments per week by July 2017—meaning roughly 13.5 minutes of pro-Trump propaganda daily across Sinclair’s local news stations nationwide. These “must-run” segments gave up local news time that could have covered community issues, school boards, local government, or investigative journalism.

The segments functioned as pure Trump propaganda. Epshteyn “unfailingly supported his ex-boss in virtually all of his two-minute segments, praising Trump’s trade policy, saluting his Veterans Administration reform efforts, and crediting Trump for job growth.” Media critic David Zurawik stated that “the pieces that Epshteyn has done come as close to classic propaganda as I think I have seen in thirty years of covering local television or national television. They are outrageous.” Epshteyn used his platform to spin obviously bad news for Trump and Republicans in a positive light and conducted softball interviews with senior Trump administration officials.

The coordination raised immediate concerns about quid pro quo arrangements. According to Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, Sinclair’s hiring of Epshteyn “suggested a quid pro quo with the administration, exchanging favorable coverage for favorable regulatory treatment.” This coordination had precedent: in 2016, Sinclair struck a deal with Trump’s presidential campaign to offer better coverage in exchange for more access to the candidate, according to a Politico report. The Epshteyn hiring came as Sinclair was seeking FCC approval for its $3.9 billion Tribune Media acquisition, which would have expanded its reach to nearly 72% of American households.

The mandatory pro-Trump segments continued from April 2017 through December 2019, when Sinclair finally dropped Epshteyn and other political commentators amid mounting controversy over the blatant propaganda operation. The “Bottom Line with Boris” segments were controversial both inside and outside the company, with Sinclair journalists frustrated about the mandate to sacrifice local news time for “Fox-style right-wing opinion.” After leaving Sinclair, Epshteyn returned to Trump’s orbit as a “strategic advisor” for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, completing the revolving door circuit.

The Epshteyn-Sinclair arrangement demonstrated how media consolidation enables systematic propaganda: by controlling 173 local stations, Sinclair could force trusted local news anchors to air centrally-mandated political commentary, exploiting the credibility of local journalism to launder partisan messaging. This represents the weaponization of local news infrastructure for political purposes—a direct threat to democratic discourse that is only possible because of the extreme media consolidation enabled by the 1996 Telecommunications Act and regulatory capture at the FCC.