Speak at Your Own Risk

On the first day of his second term in the White House, President Trump signed an executive order on free speech stating that his administration would ensure that “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” He has gone on to violate that order many times.

Trump announced today on his social-media network, Truth Social, that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House in retaliation for their reporting, and complained that “outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America.” In other words, if media outlets publish stories that Trump does not like, he will punish them.

This is far from the first time Trump has tried to pressure the media into giving him favorable coverage or punish those who run stories he does not like.

As The New York Times has documented , Trump’s Federal Communications Commission has repeatedly tried to intimidate networks over airing material that Trump finds offensive, including criticism of Trump and interviews with Democratic politicians, by threatening to revoke their broadcast license .

Three journalists fired from Stars and Stripes , an independent media outlet that is federally funded, are suing the Pentagon, accusing it of silencing them because of their factual coverage of deplorable conditions for U.S. service members .

The Pentagon also sought to force media organizations to sign a self-censorship pledge in exchange for press credentials .

His Federal Trade Commission is investigating the liberal media watchdog Media Matters , whose work mostly consists of just publishing the things conservatives say, and NewsGuard, a nonpartisan outlet that provides “scores for news and information websites based on nine journalistic criteria.”Trump sought to ban the Associated Press for refusing to identify the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” as Trump had ordered.

This is not even close to an exhaustive list.

During an exchange with the White House today, a reporter described China as “one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world.” Trump interrupted to respond , “Well, I don’t know about that.

I think we’re repressive also.” When he’s right, he’s right. (He went on to suggest that the “fake news” was the one doing the repressing in America.) Trump’s campaign of censorship is not limited to journalists, however, and the First Amendment does not belong only to the media.