Trump’s war on media intensifies

One of four commentaries from the 29 January 2025 event in the Panel Discussion Series: American Election 2024, from The Finsbury Institute, City International Policy Studies, and the Research Group on Global (Dis)Order.

Donald Trump’s second term is not even a month old, and there are already signs that his administration’s attacks on the media will not just mirror but even surpass those from his first term in office.

The latest salvo has been to bar an Associated Press reporter from covering an event at the Oval Office, because the news organisation’s editorial guidance continues to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its original name, even though it acknowledges that the Trump administration wants it to be called the Gulf of America.

Before that, the Trump administration announced it would make four major news outlets rotate out of their office space at the Pentagon. NBC, The New York Times, NPR, three outlets that have used their Department of Defense office space for decades, and Politico, will give it up by February 14^th, and the HuffPost, The New York Post, and right-wing media outlets One America News Network, and Breitbart News will be replacing them.

Just like in his first term, Trump’s White House briefing room will have new space reserved for podcasters, content creators and news media his administration considers friendly, and will likely give them preference over legacy media over access and questions directed at officials. Access to White House pool reports, widely distributed among registered media, has also been restricted since late January.

CBS and ABC face litigation that has been dragging since the presidential campaign, over an interview with his rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, and over coverage of one of several legal cases involving Donald Trump, respectively. The parent companies of both networks, Paramount and Disney, are considering settling these lawsuits to mitigate future losses.

Since the inauguration, the Federal Communications Commission has opened investigations into PBS and NPR, accusing them of running commercials, which they are not allowed to do. While the effort to “defund” NPR predates Trump among Republicans, the Washington D.C.- based public radio outlet is not state-funded. Instead, NPR receives a small percentage of federal money.

Other threats for the media loom in the horizon, as presidential envoy Richard Grenell accused a Voice of America reporter for acting in a “treasonous” way, by quoting someone who was critical of the White House’s effort to shut down agencies like USAID.

The attacks on the VOA during the Trump first term are well documented, when its reporters were investigated for alleged bias against the White House. The VOA has a congressional charter that guarantees its editorial independence, but renewed attacks on the government-funded broadcaster could happen again.

In short, Trump’s attacks on the media will likely continue, and as many of his administration’s efforts on many other fronts, they all seem part of a well-planned strategy that is being rolled out quite quickly.