USA Trump: Critical reporting by large US media illegal
In an unusual speech at the US Department of Justice, President Donald Trump described critical reporting about him by major American media outlets as illegal.
15.03.2025, 02:51
15.03.2025, 08:53
SDA
Television stations such as CNN or MSNBC, which reported "97.6 percent" negatively about him, were the political arm of the Democratic Party, Trump claimed during the appearance in Washington. "They're really corrupt and illegal. What they're doing is illegal," the Republican railed.
Trump settled accounts with his political opponents during his appearance in the Justice Department, announcing that he would continue to clean up the state apparatus and crack down on criminals in the country. Among other things, Trump wants to equip police authorities with decommissioned military equipment. "I want them to look strong," he said - and portrayed himself as a "law and order" president who would make the country safe again and virtually free it from a downward criminal spiral.
A rare scene
Trump's speech resembled a political campaign rally. The standard song of his campaign appearances, the world-famous hit "YMCA", was also played at the end. This is an unusual setting for an appointment at the Ministry of Justice. Speeches by US presidents are generally rare there. Presidents normally keep their distance from the department so as not to raise any doubts about the independence of the judiciary. The fact that Trump gave such a politically charged speech there of all places is even more unusual.
Trump described himself as the "chief law enforcement officer" in the country. In the USA, however, this role does not fall to the President, but to the respective Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Under Trump, this is a woman: Pam Bondi, a confidante of the Republican. The description of his own role with regard to the judiciary is just as striking in view of the separation of powers that is customary in a democratic constitutional state as his statements on media reporting.
Trump's campaign against the media
"These stations and newspapers are really no different from highly paid political actors, and that has to stop," Trump complained. They had coordinated critical coverage of him among themselves, he claimed. "It has to be illegal. It's influencing judges."
In democracies, critical reporting about the government is protected by freedom of the press. In the USA, freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitution.
For years, Trump has railed against journalists at public events, particularly at election rallies - usually to great jeers from his supporters. He regularly referred to established media outlets as "enemies of the people", accused reporters of spreading nothing but lies and threatened to revoke the licenses of disagreeable broadcasters during the election campaign.
After taking office, Trump denied reporters from the US news agency AP access to the president's office and plane. The reason given: AP had refused to use the term "Gulf of America", which Trump had introduced by decree for the Gulf of Mexico. The White House also broke with decades of tradition by wresting sovereignty over the staffing of the correspondent pool - a rotating group of reporters who always accompany the president - from the independent journalists' association of correspondents accredited to the White House.
At the same time, Trump has given numerous right-wing media, influencers, bloggers and podcasters access to the White House since taking office. The US government headquarters refers to these as "new media". It is noticeable that their representatives often ask Trump benevolent questions at press conferences or serve as cues for his own statements without critically questioning him.
His relationship with the judiciary
Trump also has a special relationship with the judiciary. Before the start of his second term in office, he was the first ex-president in US history to be charged in four criminal proceedings - and convicted in one of them. The guilty verdict concerned the concealment of a hush money payment to a porn actress. This makes Trump the first convicted criminal to hold the highest office in the USA.
The Republican has always described the prosecution against him as a politically motivated witch hunt with the sole aim of preventing him from returning to the White House. He also complained about this during his appearance at the Department of Justice. "They did everything in their power to prevent me from becoming President of the United States," he claimed there. The previous government had "turned the Department of Justice into a ministry of injustice" and used it as a political weapon. But those days are now over.
The President resorted to crude language during the speech. He described lawyers who had investigated him as "scum" and the allegations in one of the criminal proceedings against him as "bullshit". He threatened to remove all "scoundrels and corrupt forces" from the government and hold them accountable for "monstrous crimes" and "serious misconduct".
Controversial personnel and decisions
In his first weeks in office, Trump had a number of Justice Department employees fired who were involved in investigations against him or otherwise disagreed with him. However, he gave several of his personal lawyers from the criminal proceedings against him high-ranking positions in the government. One of them is now Deputy Attorney General.
Trump made FBI critic Kash Patel Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which reports to the Department of Justice. The 45-year-old had openly threatened Trump opponents with persecution. The right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino was appointed Deputy FBI Chief.
As one of his first official acts after being sworn in, Trump also pardoned all perpetrators of the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 - including violent criminals and prominent right-wing radicals. Driven by Trump himself, they had used violence in an attempt to sabotage the Democratic transition of power at the time and subsequently reverse Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
