After a downed U.S. pilot was rescued in Iran, a photo began circling on social media that purported to show the Air Force officer surrounded by other troops, a U.S. flag in his lap.

While the rescue was real, the photograph wasn’t, according to fact-checking initiatives. It was, to use one of President Donald Trump’s favorite terms, “fake news.”

But it took a combination of effort and…

Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem for embarrassing him on TV, not for the civil rights catastrophe she oversaw at Homeland Security. Her replacement, Markwayne Mullin, is a loyal Trump ally who promises more of the same egregious overreach and abuse.

There’s only one rule of the second Trump administration, and that’s to flatter and aggrandize Donald Trump. Kristi Noem and her agency got…