Trump Says He’s Banning the ‘Free Press’ From His White House

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But it's it's not actually an opinion that he's criticizing. It's reporting of stuff he doesn't like and he regards as fake. Is does this make it worse or more dangerous the way that he's listing this as the criterion? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think and this is something we see the White House or Brennan Carr at the FCC often run into with these attempts to crack down on free speech. The legally safer way for them to do it would be to say, like, well, you know what, we just ran out of room in the office space or something like that, some some kind of like fictitious pretextual thing. But they just can't help but say, you know, there's another clip where Trump says basically, you know, well, maybe if they start saying nice things about me, they can come back. And I mean, that is pretty obvious, you know, abridgment of the First Amendment and attack on the free press. And I think, you know, I think we can assume these media organizations are going to sue over this. And I'm sure those words will come up again in court. You know, that's a really good point about how he says if they shape up, if they get their act together, they can come back. Let me let me play the clip. Let's look at the clip where he said that if they do that, they might be able to come back into the White House to keep them afloat. And the stories they wrote are fake. So there's a lot of news and there may be others to join them and maybe they can get better and would like to have men. OK, there's a couple of things there. First of all, he says there may be others to join them, implying that he's sending a message, to the other news organizations that haven't been blocked from the White House yet. So it looks like he's trying to affect the broader media. But the other thing is he's saying if they shape up, you know, if they get their act together, maybe they can come back. It sounds as though he is trying to influence the broader press, that if they change their coverage, they can come back in. So he's not just trying to block people. He's trying to recolor all of the coverage of the White House. Is that is that how you see it? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, our colleague here at The White House Press Briefing long ago, who knows something about White House coverage? I mean, he pointed out on Twitter today, he said, look, I mean, this is an attempt to have a chilling effect on the press, I think, particularly on outlets who don't have the massive amount of resources as, say, a CNN or even a Politico or MSNOW. I mean, if you are a relatively small White House reporter, you're looking at this, your whole job is being at the White House and covering things. You're saying, geez, Louise, I can't really have a legal battle. You know, maybe, maybe my question is going to be a little nicer at the next press briefing. I don't know. But you're going to have a little less next press briefing, a little less probing. Maybe I won't run that article. Maybe I'll kind of sand the edges off of it. And so, look, I mean, that's something Donald Trump has tried to do with his legal threats to media organizations, the various shakedowns he's done on organizations like CBS News. And so, you know, yeah, I mean, I think clearly there's this idea of, you know, well, maybe you write nicer articles, maybe you run higher, more conservatives. I mean, I think there's a couple of ways that one could imagine the White House applying pressure. Yeah. Can we talk a little about the history? Because you're alluding to some of these things. One of them is Trump forever has been filing lawsuits against news organizations for any coverage he doesn't like. He's even I think he sued what the Des Moines Register over a poll he didn't like. So he's he uses that, it sounds like as leverage again to to threaten them, to intimidate them. And the other thing you brought up was the FCC. I'm not sure a lot of people have followed this. Can you talk a little bit about what he's been doing and what Brendan Carr has been doing at the FCC to intimidate journalists? Yeah. I mean, so Brendan Carr, the chairman of the ABC, has been on a sort of an unprecedented rampage of sort of shakedowns, attempts to sort of threats, barely veiled threats. You know, one thinks about ABC and Jimmy Kimmel is example that springs to mind where he said, well, you know, geez, you guys might not want to have Jimmy Kimmel making these jokes about Melania and Trump or, you know, you might have to lose some licenses or this idea that he could interfere with with broadcast mergers or, you know, all these companies want to stay on his good side. And so, you know, there's a whole bunch of things that are going to happen. And so I think this is sort of a this is a new development, certainly in terms of the idea of just banning whole news organizations from the White House. But on the other hand, it is also a long line. And of course, the probably most significant example here in terms of the White House press corps is was banning the AP from from probably some attendance at the White House after they wouldn't accept the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Yeah, I am. And there's one other episode that really bothers me. I'm trying to find it in my notes. I can't find it at the moment. But I believe it was that ABC News said as part of their litigation, when Trump was suing them to influence their coverage, they said that they had given live coverage to Trump's bizarre speech about election security in which he made all sorts of false allegations because they felt intimidated. They were afraid that there would be more retaliation against them if they didn't give it to him. So then, in other words, this chilling effect is already working in the sense that he's inducing behavior, more cooperative, more conciliatory behavior from the press, including helping him distribute some of his propaganda. Yeah, I mean, I think the you know, I think it's worth noting historically, the White House has had a very broad access in terms of the press. I mean, it's pretty easy for basically anyone to get a day pass in the media to just visit the White House for a day if there's a press conference you want to cover or whatever. In even when you talk about people with permanent passes, that's harder to get. But these are. You know, they've had a lot of cranks there, you know, in the Biden administration. Simon Atteba, who was kind of like this representing essentially non-existent African media outlet and Republicans when when the Biden. was like, all right, let's see, is this guy even really a journalist? Republicans are like, oh my gosh, they're cracking down on the bravest truth teller on the White House lawn. And as I mentioned, you know, the Obama administration had, you know, sort of snubbed Fox News on a couple interviews or some group interviews. And then the whole press corps was up in arms over that. And I think understandably so, because people recognize that once you start these crackdowns, you know, the next Democratic president could turn it right back around. And I have seen some of this from conservative commentators who are saying, you know, this looks weak. This looks like, you know, the president's throwing a tantrum. And ultimately, this is something that the left could use against us. You mentioned this just now. Can we talk about who is actually in the Oval Office, who he lets in? Because I don't know about you, when I watch these Oval Office briefings with reporters, these exchanges, you know, and the Trump White House brags that their guy, Trump, is the most transparent president ever because he's very open to the press. But, Will, the press, I see in there asking questions is like Gateway Pundit, Lindell TV, One American News. It's just the right of the right of the right. And it seems really weird that they're claiming to be open to the press. But the press that they speak to is just the press that cooperates with them, which sounds, which just looks like old fashioned censorship to me. Do you get this impression when you see the exchanges with reporters? Yeah, I mean, it's a great point. I mean, you know, if this was a question of like journalistic quality, which I think is the White House and some of the president's defenders are trying to make it out to be. I mean, the people that they are highlighting that they're putting in the new media seat. So you get to have the first question. I mean, these are like Pizzagate conspiracy theorists like Jack Posobiec. You know, these are people who are just like, you know, not really journalists, really, even a very broad. I mean, these are partisan actors. And so I think the idea that the White House is promoting these people and cracking down on, you know, what are obviously sort of mainstream media organizations really shows, obviously, that there's a hand of censorship at play here. So there's one more clip I want to play from Trump explaining this because it really there was a phrase in this that really struck me where he talks about this being my office. This is, again, from his exchange with reporters when he was asked about why he was doing this ban. And I should preface this by saying he gets asked a question. He was asked several questions about the ban. And this is well into that exchange. He's been asked several times. And a reporter again asked him about the ban. And he says, which ban? And he goes on for quite some time trying to because he can't figure out. He says, I ban a lot of things. And then finally, he gets which one they're talking about. And he says it out loud exactly what it is. Let's play that clip. Winning never sounded so good. What would you do if you want big? At Crown Coins Casino, real people win real prizes every single day. Hi, this is Chelsea from Dallas. I just hit the jackpot. Won over 1,500,000. Visit crowncoins.com. Sign up in seconds, enter code crown and get a free lucky win. You may win up to 10,000 sweeps coins. Crowncoins.com. That's C-R-O-W-N coins.com. No purchase needed. Code valid for new users only. Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Oh, I have had no luck lately. Wait, lady luck? Bretski, I got you. I've had so much luck on spinquest.com. They have all of my favorite games, slot games, live blackjack craps, and bubble craps. You can even get a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. 10 bucks for 30? I'm headed over to spinquest.com right now. Spinquest is a free-to-play social casino. Void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. I still don't know what. What do you envision the ban on the mobile apps in front of media outlets? Oh, the ban on the free press, right? A very simple ban. I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can. Okay. I mean, first of all, I mean, he says out loud the ban on the free press. Yeah. I mean, Will, if you're a lawyer arguing for the press in the first amendment case here, it just seems like he just gave you the case. Is that right? Yeah. It's sort of like Operation, you know, Infringe on the First Amendment. You know, I mean, they really are not, they're not covering it up. And I mean, I think this is, it makes me, it does make me think that Trump just really wants a positive news cycle for him on the right. And that he's, you know, he. I think he's probably acknowledging here, even. He's saying, well, you know, I don't know, as much as we can get. I mean, he knows this is going to go to court like the AP case did. And I think these outlets are going to claw their way back eventually. So wait, this is all, this is all a play to the right? Like he's openly, directly attacking the first amendment because he thinks the political right likes that, wants that? You know, I think at least that's the theory. I mean, I think on one hand, I do think this is probably just sort of personally satisfying for him because, you know, he's frustrated with a lot of things with the Warner. And he's saying, you know, God darn it, let's just kick CNN out if they're going to say, you know, talk about how poorly my administration is going. On the other hand, it is sort of a playbook that right-wing media is used to saying, you know, they run the clip of the MSNOW reporter who can't get her badge in and they say, oh, she's flipping out. I mean, that's not really the case at all. But they're saying, you know, oh, these liberal tears taste so good. But on the other hand, you know, it's, I don't know, I just feel like we're in this moment. I mean, we know that these senators in these red states are embattled. Maybe they won't win. It's this moment where I think like even a lot of people on the right are just sort of over the trolling. It doesn't hit like it used to. And so maybe Donald Trump is the only person who's really enjoying this. Okay. I want to, let me go to the embattled thing. But first I just got to say, when he says, I don't want him in my office, to me, that's a shocking statement. I mean, he thinks that he owns the office the way he, I mean, he's a, you know, he has his own company. So he's used to like, I'd get to make all the decisions and he's operating as though being elected to the presidency of the United States entitles him to treat the white house the way he would treat, you know, a C-suite. I mean, that's, that's insane to me that he would say it's my office. And I wonder whether there'll be some political backlash just from the president claiming that it's his office and he can block the press out. So you're free to talk about that if you want. Let me, but I also want to ask you about the, the politics that you were alluding to, that this is all about. Well, tell me which one would tell me what you'd like. Sure. I mean, I think to the point you're making, I think it's similar to how he's sort of treated the white house in general, how he treats all these federal buildings, how he treats the Kennedy center as sort of like his personal property. I mean, to be clear, Donald Trump can keep the press out of the oval office. It's not like Maggie Haberman gets to march in there every day, got to snoop around. It reminds me in the other precedent we should mention here is Pete Hegstess cracked down on the Pentagon press corps where they, they sort of cast it as like, well, these guys are just snooping around. They're behind every couch. You know, we just have to do it for security reasons. And I, it may eventually head to that argument. Trump is kind of suggesting that, you know, I can't have the press just hectoring me all the time. But I think to the point you make, I think Americans, even a lot of Republicans, I think they recognize the point of having the press at the white house, that this is our government, that we are supposed to be keeping an eye on it. Um, and you know, this idea that, uh, well, they're a little annoying to the president, so they get kicked out. I don't think it's really going to fly. Yeah. Okay. So on that question of accountability, that the press supplies accountability and that Trump is trying to private, this is happening. As you've pointed out a few times here in the larger political context, people are unhappy with the Iran war, uh, with prices, his own, as you said, his own base on the right is unhappy with a lot of this stuff. He's, as you said, the, the, uh, not just him, but the Republicans in Congress, everybody is up for election on the Republican side this fall are they're feeling embattled. He's feeling embattled. So this looks to me like it's going to read like president. Who's not just that the president is blocking the press out and violent. He's not just violating the first amendment, but that he's doing it to prevent the, to deter the press from telling the public about all of the bad stuff that the, that the voters basically know about. Right. And that, so he's trying to, he's trying to suppress issues that people, ordinary people are and should be genuinely concerned about if I feel like that's going to have a bigger hit than just taking out the first amendment. Yeah. I think it sort of plays into a trope we're used to, which is like losing politician in tailspin bands, the press, whether it's banning them from campaign events or things like that, or banning them from the white house in this case. And I think people, even people who are not like super plugged into politics or don't care about, you know, Politico's white house reporter, not being able to do their job. I mean, I think that just reads as weak loser behavior to people. And I think that that is how it's going to be perceived is that he's throwing a tantrum. He's upset. He, or, you know, worse for the president that he's doing something bad. And, you know, frankly he is, but like that, that he's trying to cover something up. And I think that's how it reads. Yeah. I mean, I would love to believe because I've been at the board for a while and I've been kind of depressed, honestly, about how little the larger process and norms issues that we care about are affecting voters that, you know, violations of the constitution. Well, how does that affect me? Do I care about that? Or do we just, do I just want, you know, uh, jobs and low prices, but I, it does raise the prospect in this particular situation, that the violation of norms, the violation of the constitution is taking place in a context where it will be read by the public as about ordinary kitchen table issues that he's, that the economy is not doing as well as he promised. People are unhappy and he's trying to suppress and hide that from the public. So I, I, I'm holding that a little bit of hope. I don't know if you are, that it's actually going to cut this time. Yeah. And you know, I mean, we we'll see, I, I would also like to see a lot more action from other media outlets. Um, you know, the New York times has not affected by this. They had a statement out. But, you know, I think we need a lot more. I'd also like to see it from Fox News. news, you know, which got a lot of solidarity back in the day from from the liberal and the mainstream outlets. As far as I can tell, they've been silent. You know, I think the way to beat this is, you know, it is with kind of like sort of a collective action, even from the conservative outlets. Yeah. Well, we can end on that note, because at the Bulwark, we are totally covering this and we are absolutely standing with our colleagues and we're going to be on this story as long as we can. First of all, everybody out there subscribe to Will's awesome newsletter, False Flag. Subscribe to this YouTube channel. We do a YouTube channel and we've got a website where we report lots of good stuff and you can get Will's column and lots of other stuff. It's at the Bulwark dot com. See you guys. 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