Donald Trump frequently attacks the American media as having a left-wing bias and being "corrupt", and also uses a variety of insults when speaking about outlets that give him unfavorable coverage. Trump has sued various media outlets for perceived inaccuracies or biases, and has used his position as president to pressure outlets he dislikes by interfering in their business operations, launching investigations, threatening to revoke broadcast licenses, and cutting funding for public broadcasting.
Attacks on the media by Trump
In 2020, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a special report by Leonard Downie Jr. titled "The Trump Administration and the Media".Leonard Downie Jr. The Trump Administration and the Media In the very beginning the report stated: Trump has habitually attacked the news media in rallies, responses to reporters' questions, and many hundreds of tweets. He has repeatedly called the press "fake news," "the enemy of the people," "dishonest," "corrupt," "low life reporters," "bad people," "human scum" and "some of the worst human beings you'll ever meet."
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More than 600 of Trump's tweets targeted specific news organizations, led by The New York Times, CNN, NBC and MSNBC, Fox News and The Washington Post. He called the Times, among other slurs, "fake," "phony," "nasty," "disgraced," "dumb," "clueless," "stupid," "sad," "failing," and "dying." He characterized the Post as "fake," "crazy," "dishonest," "phony," and "disgraced." In March 2025, during his second term, Trump suggested media outlets CNN and MSNBC were doing illegal activities.
On November 14, 2025, Trump answered a question from Catherine Lucey of Bloomberg News by saying "Quiet, piggy". On November 18, 2025, Trump told Mary Bruce of ABC News "You're a terrible person and a terrible reporter."
In March 2026, Trump posted "you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON".
In April 2026, about an alleged leak of the 2026 United States F-15E rescue operation in Iran, Trump said "we're going to go to the media company that released it and we're going to say national security, give it up or go to jail." 2025 Pentagon press pass forfeiture
In September 2025, the Department of Defense set out new rules for reporters where they would not obtain or use unauthorized material even if the information is unclassified. On October 14, most media outlets including Fox News said it would not adhere to the new rules laid out for reporters.
"Enemy of the people"
From his inauguration in January 2017 through October 15, 2019, Trump called the news media the "enemy of the people" 36 times on Twitter.Michael D. Shear, Maggie Haberman, Nicholas Confessore, Karen Yourish, Larry Buchanan and Keith Collins, How Trump Reshaped the Presidency in Over 11,000 Tweets, The New York Times (2 November 2019). In 2012, former Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell gave a speech at a conference sponsored by Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog group, in which he called the media "the enemy of the American people". The term was promoted by far-right media organization Breitbart News, one of whose major stockholders is Robert Mercer who employed Caddell as a contractor since 2013 and was one of Donald Trump's biggest financial backers. In February 2017, hours after meeting Caddell while touring a Boeing aircraft plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, Trump said on Twitter that The New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, and CNN were "fake news" and "the enemy of the American People". On February 24, he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, "A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. They are the enemy of the people."Higgins, Andrew (26 February 2017) "Trump Embraces 'Enemy of the People,' a Phrase With a Fraught History" The New York Times
In a June 2018 rally in South Carolina, Trump called journalists "fake newsers" and "the enemy of the people". On July 19, following the critical reaction to his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on 15 July 2018 in Helsinki, Finland, Trump tweeted "The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media." The New York Times noted Trump's use of this phrase during his "moments of peak criticism" and use of the term by Nazi and Soviet propaganda. On August 2, after Trump tweeted "FAKE NEWS media... is the enemy of the American People", multiple international institutions such as the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticized Trump for his attacks on the free press. On August 16, the United States Senate, in a symbolic rebuke to Trump, passed by unanimous consent a resolution affirming that the media is not "the enemy of the people" and reaffirming "the vital and indispensable role the free press serves."Reiss, Jaclyn (16 August 2018) "US Senate unanimously passes resolution affirming the press 'is not the enemy of the people'" Boston GlobeS.Res.607 – A resolution reaffirming the vital and indispensable role the free press serves., 115th Congress (2017–2018), Congress.gov.
In August 2019, when journalist Jonathan Karl asked him if he feared that his supporters would interpret this as a justification for violence, Trump replied: "I hope they take my words to heart. I believe the press is the enemy of the people." In March 2024, Trump, who had previously supported a congressional bill that would ban TikTok in the United States, said he now opposed a ban because it would help Facebook, and that he considered "Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media".
Removal of specific media personnel and outlets
In November 2018, Trump abruptly banned CNN reporter Jim Acosta from the White House after he asked a difficult question at a press conference and refused to relinquish the microphone before asking his second question; Trump berated him from the podium. CNN's lawsuit filed in response (on due process grounds) resulted in Acosta's access being restored before the end of the month. Thereafter, the White House published standards of conduct for press conferences. In early 2019, the Trump administration updated eligibility rules for White House press passes, yanking credentials from most of the White House press corps and refusing to give exemptions to Trump critics.
In August 2019, the Trump administration suspended, after allowing for an administrative appeal, the White House press pass of Playboy writer Brian Karem after a confrontation he had in the Rose Garden with right-wing commentator Sebastian Gorka. A panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed restoration of Karem's access on the grounds he was not afforded due process due to lack of published conduct standards for events outside of press conferences.
Shortly after the beginning of the President's second term, media outlets which published coverage Trump considered unfavorable were denied office space in the Pentagon, though still allowed to enter the building: CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill, The War Zone, NBC News, The New York Times, NPR, and Politico. These were replaced by outlets which had not requested Pentagon office space, almost all of which leaned conservative: Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Free Press, One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News, and HuffPost (which leans progressive). The New York Times challenged the escort requirement in December 2025 and in July 2026, a federal judge ordered the Defense Department to halt this order temporarily on First Amendment grounds. In February 2025, President Trump indefinitely banned Associated Press reporters from pooled press events in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One because they continued to use the term "Gulf of Mexico" instead of Trump's preferred term "Gulf of America". The decision is being challenged in Associated Press v. Budowich.
CNN, MS NOW, Politico On September 18, 2026, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico reporters from the White House effective immediately, arguing that all three outlets were responsible for continuously reporting "fake news". The move was unusual in its directness, as it targeted specific news organizations by name rather than through broader access restrictions; he claimed that Politico received an "illegal and ridiculous" $8 million subscription from the U.S. government during Joe Biden's presidency, and that MS NOW had rebranded from "MSNBC" due to declining viewership and credibility (the rebranding was due to the network's separation from NBCUniversal and NBC News into a new company). Trump warned that other outlets would also be targeted, stating that they should not be able to constantly "write or report fiction and lies" when covering the president.
Politico stated that the claims made by Trump were "false and have been thoroughly debunked", and an MS NOW spokesperson stated that the network "intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy."
On September 21, White House television pool chair Bryan Boughton announced that the pool would suspend its television coverage of "events designated as pool coverage of the President", in protest of the removal of CNN. In solidarity, outlets including the Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post announced that they would postpone until midnight the publication of their White House press photographs of the day. Following the withdrawal of the press pool, the Trump administration launched the YouTube channel "Trump TV", which primarily broadcasts a playlist of previous Trump campaign events and speeches, as well as live coverage of presidential events.
On September 26, Trump told a female reporter from MS NOW who questioned him about the press pool that she was "fake news" and "MS DNC", and then told her to "be quiet".
In an interview on the ABC News program This Week on September 27, attorney general Todd Blanche said that access to the White House by news outlets is "a privilege and not a right", and that Trump is "sick and tired" of what he considers inaccurate reporting. When asked for an example of such reporting, Blanche said that "information coming out of CNN and some of these other networks" is "almost 100 percent negative toward the president".
On September 28, 2026, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico jointly filed a 42-page motion in federal court seeking a preliminary injunction against the White House media ban, requesting that the restrictions be suspended until the case is resolved. In the filing, lawyers for the three outlets argued that the administration had continued to implement the ban in an unpredictable and inconsistent manner despite an existing restraining order, citing in particular the selective exclusion of CNN from White House pool duties. The filing cautioned that, if given the opportunity, the White House would "immediately reinstitute a complete ban of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico." It further stated that the ban constituted "an unlawful assault on the most fundamental First Amendment freedoms" and would cause "irreparable harm on Plaintiffs and the public if not restrained," and asked the court to keep the ban on hold until the case is resolved.
CNN et al. v. Trump On September 21, the three banned outlets jointly filed a lawsuit, alleging infringement of the First Amendment and due process. In a statement, they wrote, "We are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."