On Donald Trump’s Opposition to the Media
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Dear Undecided Voter,
One of the many hypocrisies of Donald J. Trump can be found in his disdain for the First Amendment of the Constitution, forty-five words which encapsulate what it means to be an American. How exactly has this happened, and why does it matter?
A Presidential nominee is often referred to as the leader of his or her political party, but that designation would seem quaint when applied to Trump. He doesn’t only lead the Republican Party, he rules it with the unrelenting gravitational pull of a black hole, devouring any light that might emit from his colleagues and rendering the party unrecognizable as its edges continuously fold in upon itself.
Any of the Republican talking points during this election season either come directly from Trump or have travelled through his orbit and emerged with his stamp of approval. It would follow that the GOP’s recent insistence that the Democrats are threatening to limit First Amendment rights is just another fraudulent campaign strategy designed to enflame Trump supporters and obscure Trump’s lack of understanding of the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights.
Among other things, the First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” The Founding Fathers still remembered the sting of tyranny, so James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights to place limits on government overreach and provide protections for individual liberty. He understood that both the protests of individual citizens and the vigilance of a free press would be necessary in order to maintain the freedoms only so recently won.
Most Presidents understand all of this, but most have also had adversarial relationships with print journalists and media personalities precisely because those relationships must be adversarial. It is the duty of reporters to ask difficult questions in press conferences, to engage in diligent investigative reporting, and to broadcast the facts that a presidential administration might prefer to obscure from the public. The press might be intrusive, but it is generally understood that their role in a democracy is essential. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Donald Trump would disagree with Jefferson. Trump’s war with the media began almost immediately after he announced his initial run for the presidency. As one outlet or another printed something critical about his candidacy, Trump began to refer to them collectively as the “fake news media,” and it didn’t take long for his followers to pick up on this.
It was perhaps the single most effective strategy of the Trump campaign. By convincing his followers that reporters were the enemy and that mainstream media outlets like the New York Times and CNN and NBC News were all organized against him — against them — Trump was able to hide within a house of mirrors of his own creation. All politicians live in fear of a damning story that could derail their campaigns, but Trump had created an alternate reality in which he was completely immune to critical press. Because his followers believed Trump’s lies about the media conspiracy, any negative stories that might have damaged another candidate actually helped the Trump campaign. No matter how thoroughly reported an article might be, Trump could dismiss it as “fake news,” and it would be more proof of what his followers already believed. Each attempt by the media to delineate his flaws as a candidate became another brick in the castle he was building.
But there was more going on than the deceit of gullible followers. Trump’s attacks on the media eventually became regular features of his campaign rallies as he would point towards the reporters and camera operators in the back of the room and encourage the crowd as they booed and hurled profanities in their direction. His followers have so embraced Trump’s war with the press that even as Secret Service agents were leading Trump off the stage following a failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, many in attendance immediately turned towards the cameras and unleashed a stream of profanity-laced rants blaming the media for the attack.
As we get closer to Election Day and peer into the abyss that would be a second Trump presidency, it’s important that we recognize what the former President’s views on the First Amendment portend about what the next four years might hold. Having long since abandoned any pretense concerning truth, Trump has been particularly aggressive with his attacks on those news agencies that point out his lies, question his policies, or criticize his record.
In recent months Trump has railed against all three major networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), as well as FOX and CNN with grievances about fact checking and what he perceives to be election interference. Most recently he has complained about how “60 Minutes” handled an interview with Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and suggested that not only should the show be taken off the air, but that the CBS Network should lose its federal broadcasting license. He has also said on separate occasions that ABC, NBC, and FOX should lose their licenses as well.
Here’s why this is important. One of the first and most dangerous steps a leader will take in an attempt to move towards authoritarian control of the government is to limit or eliminate the media. Although past Presidents were likely bothered by the media, no former President has called for the banning of media outlets in the way that Trump regularly does.
If Trump wins this election and begins a second term of office in January, does this mean that he will begin to pull the licenses of the networks he views as enemies of his administration? Will he stop allowing reporters from certain newspapers to attend his press conferences? Will he stop holding press conferences altogether?
The answers to those questions are unknown, but it is clear that this is what he would like. For the past eight years there has been much hand-wringing about Trump’s lack of honesty, but the danger of his return to the Oval Office is more easily seen in the truths he tells than the lies, and his war with the media reveals the most frightening truth — Donald Trump wishes to rule without the checks and balances provided by a free press. Donald Trump wishes to rule as a dictator. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote against everything the United States of America used to be.
