Trump has placed historic pressure on press freedom and free speech
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of essays by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.x
By Tony Pederson
Last week, the Justice Department issued subpoenas to several reporters of The New York Times. The reporters had been involved in a Times story about Air Force One, a Boeing 747 that had been given to President Trump by the Qatari government and retrofitted with safety and communications features. The report in the Times said the plane lacked certain safety and defense features that older versions of Air Force One had.
The government seeks testimony from the reporters about their confidential sources for the story, claiming a national security issue. Reports indicate Trump is angered by coverage of his new Air Force One. A lawyer for the Times called the subpoenas “abusive and improper.” The Times has filed a motion to quash the subpoenas.
Federal government subpoenas seeking testimony from journalists have been relatively rare since the 1970s. Under the Trump administration, subpoenas have become a common pressure tactic, along with lawsuits against major news organizations and access restrictions. In an even more invasive escalation, FBI agents earlier this year searched the home of a Washington Post reporter.
Major press freedom groups have been consistent in their analyses of press freedom and free speech in the United States since Trump began his second term in January 2025. Most note that there has been a remarkable change in a country that has long cherished a free and independent press.
Perhaps the best summation of the issues was written last year by Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists based in New York. “The country that once proudly lauded its commitment to free expression and a free press has rapidly adopted the behavior of autocrats to stifle reporting it does not like,” she wrote. “From new rules that threaten the ability of journalists to report on defense (the country's largest federal employer and third largest expenditure) to spurious lawsuits from the president against news outlets whose reporting he dislikes (some of whom settled, apparently in fear of greater punishment) to regulatory overreach and the gutting of public media, the United States looks less like the champion of a free press and more like its nemesis.”
The 2026 ranking on global press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, based in Paris, stated: “U.S. President Donald Trump turned his repeated attacks on the press and journalists into a systematic policy, pushing the U.S. down to 64th place.” The index showed the U.S. seven places lower than the previous ranking, just behind Botswana and just ahead of Panama.
The Inter American Press Association, based in Miami, is the primary organization for monitoring press freedom in the Americas. For more than 75 years, the organization has been respected for its work on press freedom in Latin America. In its report on the United States approved at the midyear meeting in April, IAPA noted that the news media in the United States continues to face “an escalation of attacks on multiple fronts.” The report noted the restrictions on access taken as punitive action against the Associated Press for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico, rather than the Gulf of America, as decreed by one of Trump’s executive orders.
There have been other periods in our 250 years in which there have been serious threats to press freedom. Richard Nixon’s notorious enemies list contained the names of numerous journalists as well as political opponents and other critics. The list was disclosed during congressional testimony by White House Counsel John Dean in 1973. Dean said the purpose of the list was “to use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
The first major challenge to a free press in the United States occurred with passage of the Sedition Act in 1798. The act was intended to limit criticism of government, mainly the administration of Federalist President John Adams. Democratic-Republican newspaper editors were targeted, with 10 being convicted. Resentment of the act helped Thomas Jefferson win election in 1800. He pardoned the convicted editors, and the Sedition Act was not renewed. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln imposed harsh restrictions on editors and reporters that included temporary closing of the New York World and the New York Journal of Commerce.
Censorship of reporting has been common during times of armed conflict, and a formal structure was in place during World War I. Reporters generally complied with the restrictions that were intended to limit publishing sensitive information that might aid enemies of the United States. “The First Casualty,” written by Phillip Knightley and published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2004, is an excellent history of reporting during wartime and the pressures placed on journalism by government. The title comes from the famous quote by Sen. Hiram Johnson in 1917: “The first casualty when war comes, is truth.”
None of this history can be applied directly to the situation today in which Trump, who declared reporters as “enemies of the people” in 2016, has engaged in a comprehensive campaign to use government agencies and policy to limit critics and suppress free speech. He has used libel lawsuits, which have been considered frivolous by First Amendment lawyers, and government agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, to pressure both journalists and entertainers to limit criticism.
President Trump and his administration have placed historic and unprecedented pressures on major news organizations.
Trump has made the news media targets in his campaign of retribution against individuals and organizations he believes have wronged him in various ways. Also in 2016, he adopted his phrase of “fake news.” Generally, fake news was reporting with which he disagreed even as he made statements contrary to fact. He quickly found on the campaign trail and in rallies that his criticism of news media was met with enthusiastic applause. Polling has indicated clearly in recent years a continuing decline in the public’s confidence in news media to report news fairly and accurately.
Upon his election to a second term in 2024, he elevated his attacks with lawsuits. In doing so, Trump became the only sitting or former president to sue a news organization for defamation. He has filed a lengthy list of lawsuits against news organizations, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, CBS News, ABC News, CNN, and The Des Moines Register.
Trump also sued the Pulitzer Prize Board over prizes awarded in 2018 to The New York Times and The Washington Post for reporting on Trump campaign links to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Trump had demanded that the prizes be rescinded because they were based on “the absurdly false and defamatory narrative” that his campaign had colluded with Vladimir Putin and Russia. When the Pulitzer Board rejected his demand, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit in state court in Florida in 2022. The lawsuit has been allowed to proceed to discovery, and lawyers for the Pulitzer Board have demanded detailed financial and medical records from Trump.
Two of the lawsuits, one against CBS News and the other against ABC News, have been settled. First Amendment lawyers have expressed doubt about the merit of all the lawsuits, and the two against the broadcast organizations brought particularly negative reaction from journalists and lawyers.
ABC News settled for $15 million and an expression of regret over an interview George Stephanopoulos did with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina. Stephanopoulos questioned Mace, who had spoken about being raped as a teen-ager, about her continued support for Trump, whom he referred to as being found “liable for rape” in a 2023 civil case involving writer E. Jean Carroll. ABC settled the libel case in December 2024.
CBS News settled, also for $15 million, after Trump filed a lawsuit over the editing of an interview with Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris who was questioned about U.S. policy in the Middle East. Her original comment about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was edited to a briefer response in an episode of “60 Minutes.” Trump’s lawsuit claimed that the editing was intentionally done to help Harris’ candidacy.
The case was settled in July 2025 and occurred while negotiations were ongoing for CBS News parent Paramount Inc. to be sold to Skydance Media. David Ellison is CEO of Skydance and his father is Oracle founder David Ellison, known to be friends with Trump. The resulting transition has created months of controversy for “60 Minutes” and what is widely regarded by journalists as the tarnishing of one of the historic brands in broadcast journalism. Among the major controversies are the firing of Scott Pelley and the ending of the contract of reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, a graduate of the University of Mississippi.
Several of Trump’s lawsuits have been dismissed. CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have been successful in winning early dismissals. The lawsuit against the Des Moines Register is still active. It involves not defamation but rather Trump’s claims of voter interference because of a poll published by the newspaper before the 2024 election that showed Harris with a 3-point lead. Trump won Iowa by 13 points.
The Federal Communications Commission, under Trump-appointed Chair Brendan Carr, has engaged in unprecedented rhetoric and threats, especially involving licensing of broadcast news. Carr has ordered a review of all ABC station licenses related to diversity and inclusion. Such a government review is unprecedented, and First Amendment lawyers consider it another pressure point the Trump administration is using to get news organizations to come into line.
In what developed as perhaps the most controversial action that sparked a national discussion on free speech, Carr threatened ABC with punishment after late night host Jimmy Kimmel made remarks about Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, after his murder last year. Disney Inc. pulled Kimmel for a week, but there was an immediate national outcry, including among Republican leaders such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who likened the FCC threats to mafia activities. In an emotional return, Kimmel thanked ABC and other supporters of free speech, including the Republicans who had supported him. “This show is not important,” he said. “What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
There is historic and well-placed tension between the press and the presidency. Thomas Jefferson, more than any of the other Founders, established the idea of a free press as a needed check on government. Most presidents in modern times have tolerated journalists and their work products with varying degrees of patience. But most have seemed at least to recognize the value of a free and independent press.
By any measure, Trump and his administration have sought control over news media and taken unprecedented actions to silence criticism. Only history and future administrations will determine if Trump’s campaign against the news media will be sustained or if the First Amendment will prevail in practice and in government acceptance.
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Tony Pederson is managing fellow of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics and professor emeritus in journalism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
