Trump “ban on the free press”: The peak of his “fake news” demagoguery
After laying the groundwork for his war against media in his first term for reporting unfavorably on his magnanimousness, Donald Trump expelled MS NOW, CNN and Politico journalists from the White House in what he himself referred to as a “ban on the free press” for reporting negatively on his administration and spreading so-called “fake news.”
Trump’s deliberate use of the words “ban on the free press” left little doubt about his motivations (via MS NOW):
He dislikes what journalists at those outlets report. News outlets, he wrote, “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” about him. He did not point to a single story he considered false. In the Oval Office on Friday, he was more explicit still. “I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” he said. “If they could straighten themselves out, I would love it.”
That bluntness is what sets this moment apart. It removes any doubt that the president is using access to the White House to punish speech he dislikes.
That matters well beyond the three outlets involved, and it clarifies what fights over White House access have always been about. Who gets into the Oval Office, who gets a seat on Air Force One, who gets a chair in the briefing room — from the outside, those questions can look like vanity and ego. But they are about something deeper: how much the public gets to see and know about its own government. If access to the White House comes to depend on coverage that the president likes, the public will increasingly see (only) what the president likes. That is not a free press. (Emphasis mine)
Beginning with his 2016 campaign and continuing still today, Trump has relied on the propaganda tools of Joseph Goebbels during the rise of Nazi Germany by referring to the news media as “Fake News.” Goebbels called the media Lügenpresse, which translated is “lying press.”
It was also during the reign of the Third Reich that Goebbels released his “Ten anti-Jewish Commandments“; calling the Jews “a sworn enemy of the German people” who posed a risk to Adolph Hitler’s vision for Germany. Trump incorporates similar language when he refers to unfavorable media as the “enemy of the American people.”
Trump 2.0 has taken his assault on the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and a free press to new heights since moving back into the White House:
- February 2025 – Threatened to sue authors of displeasing books written about him (he followed-through on his threat to sue in June 2026)
- March 2025 – Threatened students involved in “illegal protests” against his immigration policies
- March 2025 – Launched (with help from Marco Rubio) the “Catch and Revoke” program to spy on the social media accounts of foreign student visa holders using AI
- June 2025 – Went to court seeking to control Google searches after failing to do so in 2018
- September 2025 – In the days following the Charlie Kirk shooting, he went after the so-called “hate speech” of media outlets who didn’t fawn over the MAGA darling
- September 2025 – Was instrumental in the termination of Jimmy Kimmel after the nighttime host said some unflattering things about Kirk (he was later brought back) and threatened to have ABC’s broadcast license revoked.
- March 2026 – Threatened major media outlets with “treason” for reporting unfavorably on the Iran war
History has proven that the anti-media principles of Joseph Goebbels were tragically successful. And just as tragically, Trump’s use of the same principles is having a level of liberty-killing success as a growing number of Republicans and Democrats believe that government should control news and social media outlets (via FIRE.org):
Since 2018, the Pew Research Center has asked thousands of Americans if either the government or technology companies should do more to filter online content, including restricting access to false information — an intervention which Americans have long been wary of.
Well, Pew asked that question again [in 2025], and the results are depressing.
The Pew survey reveals Americans are more likely now than at any time in the past several years to favor restrictions on online content. Two-thirds of Americans would support a private company moderating content online while 55% would support the federal government doing the same, the latter up from 39% in 2018. The Pew survey includes responses from 5,115 adults in the United States and was conducted from June 5 to 11.
Although support for the federal government restricting access to false information online has grown across the board in recent years, a partisan divide on the issue has emerged. In 2018, the difference between Republicans and Democrats on this issue was negligible (37% and 40%, respectively). Today, the percentage of Republicans in favor of the federal government regulating online content remains similar, at 39%, while support has surged to 70% among Democrats.
Similarly, Democratic support for tech companies restricting access to false information has increased over the years, from 60% in 2018 to 81% today. Republican support stayed the same at 48% in both years.
By the way, in addition to his success in tearing apart the First Amendment in piecemeal fashion, Trump’s Goebbels-esque war on the media has been financially lucrative for himself and the family business to the tune of billions of dollars.
As I make clear in my book The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty, Republicans and Democrats in Washington have been redefining free speech and the free press as “misinformation” or “disinformation” (or in the case of Donald Trump, “fake news”) — which is political doublespeak to describe people using their First Amendment right to criticize government — and then criminalizing it.
MAGA has always supported the idea of sacrificing our God-given, constitutionally protected rights to help Trump, but a Pew Research poll conducted just weeks after Trump was sworn into office showed just how far Republicans were willing to go the second time around. According to the poll, Republicans believed Trump could address America’s problems more effectively if he didn’t have to worry so much about Congress, the courts, and most of the Constitution.
A 59% majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say many of the country’s problems could be addressed more effectively if Trump didn’t need to worry so much about Congress or the courts. Republicans who say they ‘strongly’ identify with the GOP are particularly likely to say the nation’s problems could be more effectively addressed by giving Trump more power: 78% say this.
The partisan divisions were enormous: 90% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents concluded it would be “too risky” to give Trump more power without checks and balances, but according to the Pew data, a majority of GOP voters came to the opposite conclusion. (Emphasis mine)
For those ready to echo Trump’s cries of “fake news” after reading this, PEW conducted an earlier poll on the subject of abandoning the Constitution in favor of granting Trump unlimited power:
The Associated Press reported last spring on a national AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, which found that 57% of Republicans endorsed the idea of Trump “taking action on the country’s important policy issues without waiting for Congress or the courts.”
An NPR/PBS/Marist poll, released around the same time, asked respondents whether they agreed that conditions in the U.S. had deteriorated to the point that “we need a leader who is willing to break some rules to set things right.” Among GOP voters, a 56% majority endorsed the idea.
In the Age of Trump, pushing the Constitution aside has also become official policy for many of the talking heads in so-called conservative media. For example, Steve Deace (Blaze TV) suggested in July 2025 that it might be time to consider voiding parts of the Constitution to help Trump “win.”
As the man who once kept a copy of the book, My New Order — a collection of Hitler’s speeches — on his bedside, Trump has proven himself to be a man who can appreciate the power of propaganda and its ability to control the media and shape public opinion to his advantage. This is why he uses his “fake news” demagoguery to destroy “the free press.”
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He is the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.
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