The determination of Donald Trump to exert tyrannical control over the media that he despises has taken another turn for the worse. He is now not only insulting them as “fake” news, or demeaning them as “the enemy of the people,” or suing them on preposterous charges of defamation. He has escalated his wrath to outright threats of prosecution.
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Bear in mind that Trump has not identified any actual crime that anyone in the press has committed. He has never needed any such trivialities as prosecutable offenses to backup his wild accusations. Trump merely babbles maniacally about some imagined illegality and expects his cult devotees to follow blindly.
SEE THIS: Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches the Divine Infallibility of Dear Leader
Trump participated in a staged photo-op in Florida to visit a new migrant detention facility that features alligator infested surrounding waters. Of course, the alligators have no impact whatsoever on the security of the facility. But the gruesome cruelty of the notion of migrants – including children – being ripped to shreds delights the sickly morbidity of the MAGA crowd.
During the press conference Trump was asked questions about some of his other inhumane and unconstitutional mass deportation initiatives. One in particular addressed a news report by CNN about a publicly available app that advised people of where ICE agents were conducting operations. Which led to the following exchange…
Question: CNN yesterday pushed an app that lets you track where ICE agents are. [Border czar] Tom Homan said that perhaps CNN should be prosecuted for that. Your Thoughts?
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem: We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that. Because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we’re going to actually go after them and prosecute with the partnership of [Attorney General] Pam [Bondi] if we can, because what they are doing we believe is illegal.
Trump: And they may very well be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran. They were given totally false reports.
Trump on CNN: "They may be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran."
DHS Secretary Noem’s assertion that CNN engaged in some illegal activity has no basis in reality. They are entirely within their rights to report on the existence of an app that is available for anyone to download. That is journalism, not promotion. They never “encouraged” anyone to use the app. And it’s purpose is merely to notify the public about activities that ICE agents are openly engaging in. Which is also legal.
Trump went further – and wildly off-topic – to threaten CNN with prosecution for “having given false reports on the attack in Iran.” Once again, it is only Trump’s opinion that the reports were false. CNN derived the information from Trump’s own intelligence team. As previously reported, Trump’s Propaganda Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, complained about CNN for…
“…accurately reporting what Trump’s own intel professionals said about the results of the air strikes. They revealed that, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, Iran’s nuclear capabilities had only been damaged partially, and that they could be rebuilt within months.”
So CNN’s reporting was correct. However, even if it were not, that isn’t illegal either. News organizations are allowed to make make mistakes, and corrections when necessary. In this case it wasn’t necessary. But if Trump still wasn’t satisfied, he could file another wholly unwarranted lawsuit for defamation. But he cannot issue criminal indictments. CNN replied to these anti-constitutional threats saying that…
“There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”
Trump’s use of intimidation against the media is more proof of his penchant for fascism. He would love to throw journalists in jail for reporting the truth about him. He has also been threatening political foes with arrest. Just in the past 48 hours he has mused about arresting Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, and he indicated his openness to deporting Elon Musk, his former BFF and DOGE chief.
Trump’s threats of prosecuting journalists, along with his civil litigation, are long standing obsessions that reveal his hatred of the Constitution and its First Amendment protections. And it is a troubling signal of his intentions to control the media and form a fascist regime that won’t tolerate a free press or free thought. At this point in the process, he isn’t even trying to hide it. Which means that it is more imperative than ever to resist him and his authoritarian aspirations. The welfare of the country is at stake.
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