“Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy, and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. President
Throughout America’s 250 years, the tension between the White House and the press is as old as the republic itself. Several presidents haven’t necessarily tried to repeal the First Amendment (which protects the press), per se, or the Fifth Amendment (which protects journalists’ confidential sources). Instead, some have tried to control the narrative and limit press access.
Let’s try to understand why restricting freedom of the press by the current president should be of concern, as FDR so eloquently stated back in 1940.
The President’s and the media’s constitutional friction
The First Amendment clash: Some presidents view media scrutiny as an obstruction to governing and/or a threat to national security, whereas the press views executive branch secrecy and access restrictions as a direct assault on the right to inform the public.
The Fifth Amendment clash: When the government uses surveillance and/or the threat of jail time to force journalists to reveal confidential sources, it creates a battle over federal overreach and the rule of law.
The most significant reason why a few presidents push back against the press is that, since the failed Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, and media coverage escalating to round-the-clock news, some leaders have realized that unhindered media access swayed public opinion against their administrations.
Historian scholar Harold Holzer’s work on the presidency reveals that many leaders treat journalists as political threats rather than democratic partners. They fear, not revere, the press (The Presidents vs. The Press, 2021).
There are 15 specific examples where freedom of the press has been challenged during the 16 months of Trump’s 2.0 presidency. Here’s a capsule summary of the incidents:
Direct legal and financial attacks:
1) On Sept. 15, 2025, a $15 billion defamation lawsuit was filed against The New York Times and four journalists for their reporting on the book titled Lucky Loser.
2) A $10 billion suit against the BBC over the editing of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech was filed on Dec. 15, 2025.
3) And on July 18, 2025, a $10 billion lawsuit was filed against The Wall Street Journal for reporting the president’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Access restrictions:
1) In February, 2025, Associated Press reporters were indefinitely banned from press events after refusing to use the president’s preferred term “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”
2) In 2025, news outlets CNN, NPR, NBC News, The Hill, Politico, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were denied Pentagon office space.
3) In September, 2025, the Department of Defense required reporters to sign a pledge promising not to use material even if it was unclassified.
4) On March 4 and 10, the Pentagon barred Associated Press, Reuters, and Getty Images photographers from attending Iran War briefings.
Regulatory coercion and censorship:
1) The administration used FCC regulatory approval for the $8 billion Paramount-Skydance merger as leverage, which led CBS to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
2) On May 1, 2025, executive orders were issued to cancel NPR and PBS federal funding; a congressional request occurred on June 3.
3) On March 14, 2025, the administration attempted to shut down Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
4) On April 6, 2026, regarding a leak about a U.S. rescue operation in Iran, Trump told journalists to “give [the source] up or go to jail.”
5) The administration launched an official government tool – White House Bias Tracker – to track and publicly flag “media bias,” which serves as a state-sponsored blacklist for journalists.
Personnel targeting:
1) Notable reporters, like Don Lemon and George Fort, were arrested on Jan. 29 while covering public protests.
2) On Oct. 3, 2025, Atlanta-based Spanish-language journalist Mario Guevara was deported to El Salvador following critical reporting.
3) On Jan. 14, the FBI raided the residence of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Post journalist, allegedly to uncover the source of a government contractor leak.
Citizen caveat emptor and Congressional oversight
Fifteen attempts by President Trump to restrict freedom of the press in 16 months of his second presidency are unprecedented and should be a clarion call to every American to demand action. Bipartisan congressional oversight is long overdue.
It’s time to seriously reflect on the breadth, depth, and scope of GOP President Ronald Reagan’s Oct. 6, 1983, historic comment: “Since the founding of this nation, freedom of the press has been a fundamental tenet of American life. The economic freedom that has earned us such great bounty and the precious freedoms of speech and assembly would have little meaning or be totally nullified should freedom of the press ever be ended.”
Steve Corbin is a professor emeritus of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a non-paid freelance guest columnist contributor to 158 newspapers and 47 social media platforms in 44 states.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.