Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Trump’s rage at the media is backfiring in another way, too. Other news organizations, in solidarity with Trump’s targets, have joined in suspending the pool, so Trump isn’t getting TV coverage for some very big events. Meanwhile, Trump’s aides are leaking that Trump is lashing out at the media because he feels increasingly powerless as a potential election loss looms.
Kristy Parker: Thanks for having me.
Parker: I don’t think we’ve ever seen another political leader in this country be so blatant and overt in his desire to eliminate freedom of the press as it pertains to the way they cover him. I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like that.
Sargent: The lawsuit filed by CNN, MS Now, and Politico argues that Trump and the White House engaged in discrimination against them for their viewpoints or reporting. And to do this, they cite Trump’s own words and tweets. For instance, on Friday, Trump announced this ban during an eruption of rage on Truth Social, in which he said: “I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning fake news CNN, MS Now, and Politico as a result of their constant reporting fake news.”
Parker: I mean, as a lawyer, I almost have to thank him, because he makes the job of lawyers very easy when it comes to doing something that typically has been considered difficult, which is proving motive.
Sargent: There are some other good examples of this as well. The lawsuit cites Trump justifying his ban this week. He said this: “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.” Then he reiterates that, saying they “purposely write negative news.”
Parker: I mean, he’s giving away the whole game with the admissions. He is expressly saying, I am retaliating against the press because of the content of their speech. I am denying them access to me because I don’t like what they report. And when he’s saying that there’s something wrong with a country that allows things like that, what he’s really saying is there’s something wrong with America, because that is fundamentally who we are.
Sargent: I think it’s important to underscore what you said there, because he actually means that. Like, I don’t think it’s a glib construction on what he’s saying. He means that there’s something wrong with America that it allows the press to criticize a leader like him. He means it.
Sargent: Right? Free press, democracy—all stupid.
Sargent: Right. At least he thinks that as long as he’s in the presidency, right? He would not apply this to Barack Obama or Joe Biden or any other person who’s been president. So let’s dig into the legal guts of this a little more. The key to this, I think, is that federal courts have previously found that once the White House has granted access to news organizations, it can’t rescind that access on this basis, correct? Can you walk us through the legality of this, and where this lawsuit goes?
So it’s created essentially a limited forum whereby reporters can have access. When you create a forum like that, the First Amendment prohibits you from denying access based on the viewpoint of the reporter. So that can’t be the reason you don’t let a reporter in the White House—the content of their coverage.
Parker: Again, he does not hide it. There’s no hiding the ball here. There’s no mystery to uncover. He has made it very clear that he is banning these reporters because he does not like the content of their coverage. And that is what is specifically prohibited by the Constitution.
Donald Trump (voiceover): The ban on the free press, right? A very simple ban. I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can. And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it. Look, they’re very dishonest people.
And so that sort of takes it to another level, right? Because he’s not just saying, I’m banning them because I’m retaliating against them for their speech. He’s sending a message to the rest of the press. He’s saying, you need to straighten out, otherwise this is the fate that awaits you too. Isn’t that what’s going on here?
Sargent: And he’s basically telling CNN, MS Now, and Politico that you’ve got to, you know, fix your coverage of me in order to get back in, right?
Sargent: So where do you see this all going? Can you walk us through what happens now? The three news organizations have asked for relief. I assume we’re going to see a temporary restraining order or some sort of injunction, maybe very quickly.
And based on the letter of the law and previous actions this administration has tried to take, I think we will be seeing a restraining order entered in very short order against this. And then there will be litigation around a more permanent injunction against this action. And that could take a few months to unfold.
Sargent: Well, here’s where it gets even darker. Trump advisors and confidants leaked to Axios that what worries them is that Trump feels the end coming on, meaning the end of his presidency, that his power is slipping away from him. As Axios puts it, quote: “Trump often retreats to his worst impulses when he feels most powerless. That helps explain Trump’s decision to ban three news organizations from the White House for the sin of reporting what he doesn’t like.”
Parker: He lashes out when things are not going well for him, by defaulting to whatever it is he thinks he can do to, you know, drop a hammer on somebody, even in the short term. You know, so he likes to announce criminal investigations of people, direct the Department of Justice to prosecute people, pardon people who are ridiculous criminals, because he can do that with the stroke of a pen.
Sargent: There’s kind of a dark irony to it as well, I think, because for Trump, the corruption is explicit—not just because he likes to blurt out his corrupt designs, but because that’s sort of how his movement functions. He essentially tells his supporters that he is openly corrupt and that nobody can do anything about it. He sort of invites his supporters to say to themselves, well, Trump’s corruption benefits me, and so I’m for it.
But of course, the open admission of it, which is sort of central to MAGA ideology—it’s where the energy of it all comes from—ends up kind of coming back to bite him, doesn’t it? Because the courts just sort of look at it and say, well, you know, you can’t do that.
But what we have seen in the last two years now is that he really doesn’t have that power. There are always actors within the system who can stand up to him, if they will. The people are the primary ones.
So what we are seeing actually from him is a manifestation of his fundamental weakness. The more he does these sorts of things, the more he’s going to show that he’s really the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy’s going to get back there and see what’s really back there, as we continue to see these sorts of behaviors.
But then on the other hand, you’ve got people like Todd Blanche, who’s now the attorney general of the United States, who basically says straight out that he’s willing to carry out whatever Trump orders him to. In fact, that’s why Trump chose him for the job.
And so I think it’s heartening, because the news organizations are coming down on the right side of that question, and they’re all banding together against him. But there’s sort of a sense that it’s slipped in a major way as well. I wondered if you could reflect on all that.
Some of the things he does result in tremendous harm to people, and they’re people who are less powerful than the mainstream media, or some of the folks that he’s tried to prosecute. So it’s definitely always double-edged.
So I think the heart to take in it is that when people do decide, hey, democracy is worth sacrificing for, freedom of the press, freedom of speech—that is worth putting whatever interests I have on the line. And when we see people doing it, they are having ultimate success. So I think if people can just take heart in the idea that when you do stand up to the tyrant, he is not nearly as tough as his talk.
Sargent: I think that’s true. I just wish it didn’t require Trump slipping to, like, a 35 percent approval rating for people to figure this out. Because if you think back to the beginning of this whole catastrophe, there was a lot of folding and a lot of capitulation and a lot of institutional cowardice.
Parker: Well, I guess I’ll take it back to something I said earlier. I mean, I completely agree with that. And I think people need to not dismiss crazy rhetoric from people who seek power. And then they need to not dismiss the things that they actually do when they see them in power. We saw Donald Trump as president once before.
Sargent: Yeah, it would have been nice if our institutions had seen it that way at the outset of Trump 2.0. But we’re headed in what may be a salutary direction. Midterms coming, the people are going to weigh in, and that’s going to, I think, potentially change the equation even more, right?
Parker: Well, I mean, I’m a huge sports fan. I like to think this is halftime of his second term. We’re making the halftime adjustments. We’re smart, savvy people, raised in a democracy and in the belief that we the people are sovereign, and we’re going to come out and we’re going to have a good second half and continue winning these battles.
Parker: Thanks, Greg.
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