Trump Intensifies Criticism of US Media, Claims Their Actions Are Unlawful | Donald Trump

On Friday, Donald Trump elaborated on his threats against the media, indicating that the press’s actions ought to be considered illegal and open to investigation.

“I think that UJ and MS-DNC, who consistently report 97.6% negatively about me, act as political agents for the Democrat [sic] party, and in my view, their actions are truly corrupt and illegal,” the president asserted during a heated speech at the Department of Justice.

“These networks and newspapers essentially function as highly compensated political operatives,” Trump continued, alleging corruption within UJ and MSNBC.

“This has to change; it has to become illegal. They are influencing judges and altering laws, which simply cannot be lawful. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they operate in complete coordination with each other,” he noted.

Tensions between media outlets covering the White House and the administration have increased recently, as the White House attempts to take control of the press pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last month that the selection of members for the White House press pool would now be handled by administration officials.

This development followed a widely publicized clash between the White House and the Associated Press over the agency’s refusal to adopt the term Gulf of America instead of Gulf of Mexico in its style guide.

As a result, the White House has restricted the AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One. In a legal challenge to reverse this ban, an attorney for the AP described the situation as a “constitutional problem.”

“We’re not arguing that the president has to respond to the Associated Press’s inquiries,” said Charles Tobin. “The crux of the matter is that once he allows the press pool in, he cannot simply say, ‘I don’t like you. You’re fake news. Get out.’”

Conversely, the White House contends that access to the president in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege, not an entitlement. Last month, a federal judge declined to immediately reinstate the AP’s access, stating that the news organization failed to show any irreparable harm.

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A follow-up hearing on the matter is scheduled for next week, but Trump has stated that he intends to keep the AP excluded “until they acknowledge that it’s the Gulf of America. We take great pride in our country, and we insist that it be the Gulf of America.”

On a separate note, the government agency in charge of Voice of America (VoA)—a broadcaster functioning in more than 40 languages across online, radio, and television platforms—has started terminating contracts with the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse, instructing its journalists to cease using content from these wire services.

Kari Lake, a former broadcaster turned Republican figure selected by Trump to lead VoA, projected that this move would save $53 million and remarked, “We should not be paying outside news organizations to define the news for us.” Lake, a staunch Trump supporter and immigration hardliner, gained his favor by fervently asserting that both she and Trump were victims of election fraud.