Project 2025, Freedom of the Press, and Trump’s police state
In another nod to his Project 2025 plan to build a de facto police state, Donald Trump took a swipe at the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press recently when he called on his bought and paid for Republican Party members to “KILL” a bill designed to protect the fourth estate.
The bill, known as the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act, would protect journalists from Big Brother-styled bullying of the media and has already passed the GOP-controlled House (via Mediaite):
Trump shared to his Truth Social platform a PBS NewsHour interview from Monday titled, “Political divisions threaten bill to protect press freedom,” and added, “REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!”
The Seattle Times published an editorial on Monday also calling for the Senate to immediately pass the bill, writing, “Dubbed ‘Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act,’ the broadly supported bill would ensure federal protection for journalists. It would prevent authorities from abusing subpoena powers and protect reporters from being forced to reveal their sources.” (Emphasis mine)
During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to exact retribution on his political rivals and critics — including members of the press — and using the guidelines provided by Project 2025 and the accompanying Agenda 47, he could very well build a police state capable of destroying Freedom of the Press.
Project 2025 will give Trump the power to rein in the free press, beginning with a renewed emphasis on expanding libel laws to make it easier to sue media outlets for spreading “fake news.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen this song and dance before.
From the beginning of his 2016 campaign and throughout his presidency, Donald Trump demonstrated a clear hatred of the Constitution because of the limits it placed on his tyrannical ambitions. Nowhere was this more evident than in his self-declared war against the news media, or as he repeatedly called it, the “enemy of the American people,” and his threat to sue them out of business.
This is when Trump promised to “open our libel laws” so that when the press writes “purposely negative and horrible and false articles” about him, he can “sue them and win lots of money.”
“One of the things I’m going to do, and this is going to make it tougher for me…but one of the things I’m going to do if I win…is I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.
“We’re going to open up those libel laws. So that when the New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”
In June 2016, Trump revoked the press credentials of the Washington Post for their “incredibly inaccurate coverage” of his campaign, and he added them to a media enemies list that also included at the time: Univision, Buzz Feed, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and The Des Moines Register. Trump’s list became known as “the blacklist” by members of the press.
During his 2020 campaign, Trump targeted the Washington Post again (via TheHill.com):
The White House said … it is compiling a “dossier” detailing what allies to the president say are inaccurate claims made by Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold and others in their coverage of the Trump Organization and its business relationships with various GOP-aligned organizations.
“The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop,” Deere wrote a statement to the Post. “Please be advised that we are building up a very large ‘dossier’ on the many false David Fahrenthold and others’ stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.” (Emphasis mine)
For the record, Farenthold had been covering the Trump Organization for many years at the time, and he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for his 2016 coverage of Trump’s fraudulent charity organization which was later shut down in 2018.
Having served as Exhibit A in Trump’s war against Freedom of the Press in 2016 and 2020, the Washington Post appeared to surrender to his assault against liberty in 2024 when the publication made the decision a few days prior to the 2024 election not to make an endorsement for president.
Project 2025 and Agenda 47 call for a massive expansion and centralization of executive power that James Madison warned in The Federalist Papers, Number 47 would result in tyranny:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Despite Trump’s attempt to disavow any knowledge of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, he has praised Kevin Roberts by name twice this year. On Truth Social in January, Trump praised Roberts as “the highly respected president of the Heritage Foundation,” noting he was a “wonderful guest” on Fox & Friends. Trump urged Roberts to “keep going” and “get the word out!”
In February, during remarks to National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville, Trump personally again praised Roberts, this time from the stage: “Heritage Foundation president, somebody else doing an unbelievable job. He’s bringing it back at levels it’s never seen. Dr. Kevin Roberts. Kevin, thank you, Kevin. Kevin, thank you, wherever you may be.”
Additionally, Project 2025 has a long list of connections to former (and likely) future Trump administration officials and loyalists, including notable names like Ben Carson, Peter Navarro, and Ken Cuccinelli, just to name a few. So, it’s highly unlikely that he’s telling the truth.
For those ready to tell me how wrong I am about Donald Trump’s intentions concerning the use of Project 2025 to destroy Freedom of the Press and build a de facto police state, let me remind you that he has already gone on record that he plans to be a dictator on day one of his second term, proving that he’s already planning on acting independently of the Constitution.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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