NEWS: White House escalates crackdown on free press
The President removes WSJ from the "press pool" over its Epstein reporting.
Bottom Line Up Front:
The White House has banned The Wall Street Journal from traveling with other media outlets on the President’s upcoming overseas trip, days after the paper published a damaging report about his alleged personal ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is normalizing a new standard: access to power will now be governed by loyalty, not the Constitution.
WHAT HAPPENED
On Friday, the Trump White House removed WSJ from the press pool manifest for the President’s upcoming trip to Scotland. The decision came just days after the Journal reported that Trump sent a flirtatious birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein (a report the president has denied). Trump sued the Journal for $10 billion over the story, calling it defamatory. The paper has stood by its reporting.
When asked for comment, the White House said: “Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board.” The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned the move, saying it “defies the First Amendment” and urging the administration to reverse course.
This follows a similar decision earlier this year, when Trump’s team removed Reuters from all White House press pools after the outlet refused to adopt the administration’s preferred term “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”
WHAT IT MEANS
The President continues to use the levers of government to punish journalists for doing their jobs. And I remember when this all started: seven years ago. An early sign of Trump’s press crackdown came on a day in November 2018. It was the second year of his Administration, and Trump was apoplectic about footage of migrants headed toward the Southern Border.
CNN’s Jim Acosta challenged Trump at a news conference about the President’s characterization of the migrants as a foreign “invasion.” Trump spat back that Acosta was “a rude, terrible person.”
That night I was having dinner near the White House with a Cabinet Secretary, someone I was urging to resign from the administration, alongside a group of us who felt like it was time to go.
As the appetizer was being served, one of Trump’s senior communications aides spotted us and rushed over to our table. He had just left the West Wing and was beaming.
“Guess what I just did?” he asked.
“What?” the Cabinet Secretary said.
“I blocked Acosta from getting into the White House. He’s supposed to be on TV tonight from there. But he’s about to find out that the Secret Service won’t let him in!” He laughed at his own comment. “Fuck that guy.”
Then he scurried off to rejoin other communications staffers who seemed to be celebrating the President’s willingness to shut out media outlets that didn’t cover him favorably. The aide had almost proven my point. There was no more use in trying to ameliorate Trump’s terrible impulses. He was hellbent on revenge.
The Acosta episode was the prototype. What’s happening now is the systemization.
WHAT’S NEXT
Under Trump’s second administration, the press credentialing process — once overseen by the independent White House Correspondents’ Association — has been taken over by political operatives inside the White House itself. The effect? Outlets that anger the president get iced out. Those that amplify his message get invited in.
Candidly, this is how authoritarian systems work. I’ve seen it abroad in meetings with leaders of repressive countries. They don’t invite an independent press to cover them. They welcome obedient, state-run (or state-coerced) news outlets into the room to ask questions that flatter the leader.
Similarly, Donald Trump doesn’t need to “shut down” media outlets in order to start censoring them. He just needs to block their access … then marginalize them … then make press rights contingent on press obedience. After that, the chilling effect start to work. If The Wall Street Journal can be cast out, smaller outlets have even more reason to self-censor.
With control over press access in the hands of political hatchet men, reporters who challenge the president risk being barred from events, briefings, Air Force One — you name it. Why does this matter? Because America counts on these reporters to be on the frontlines, telling us what’s really going on in this wayward White House.
And if this becomes the norm, the very idea of a “free press corps” around the White House will become a relic.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t cover him at all? I’d love to go just ONE day without hearing his annoying voice or seeing his repulsive face.
What if the entire press boycotted the Whitehouse entirely.