Before he's even taken office, he's already made efforts to shape the media in his favor -- tapping loyalists for publicly funded outlets and launching unprecedented lawsuits against newspapers and pollsters that observers worry are the signs of escalating intimidation and censorship tactics.
On Monday, the billionaire sued pollster Ann Selzer, the Des Moines Register newspaper and its parent company Gannett over a pre-election poll that -- wrongly, come Election Day -- saw him behind in the state. That suit came after broadcaster ABC paid $15 million, plus legal fees, to settle a defamation suit after one of its reporters repeatedly said Trump had been found liable for "rape" -- in fact, he had been liable for sexual abuse.
Several legal scholars argued the outlet would have likely prevailed in court against Trump.
ABC staffers have complained to US media that the channel is setting a precedent that media should buckle to Trump -- a potentially distressing signal, since the broadcaster is hardly alone in being sued. Also being targeted by Trump's lawyers is famed reporter Bob Woodward, over publishing taped interviews with the president. Trump is arguing that Woodward was authorized to record them for journalistic purposes, but not to publish the audio. Broadcaster CBS, meanwhile, has been sued after Trump claimed CBS favorably edited an interview with election rival Kamala Harris. Trump called it "a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 US presidential election." Free speech expert Charles Tobin, speaking to CNN, called the suit "dangerous and frivolous."
Even if Trump loses in court, his willingness to launch lawsuits "creates a chilling effect," Melissa Camacho, a communications professor at San Francisco State University, told AFP. "What happens is that outlets start engaging in a practice of self-censorship."
Khadijah Costley White, an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, said the lawsuits could also push media coverage to be more favorable to the president. "If he gains a concession like he did with the recent ABC News settlement, gets his perceived adversaries to back down, or scares the press into only giving him favorable coverage, those are all wins," she said.
Camacho?! The famed great grandmother of future President Camacho? /satire