January 1, 2025 | Meek Resistsky | Leave a comment Donald Trump has put his sights on yet another media outlet. In his efforts to suppress any media coverage that could be be seen in any way as oppositional, he has put forth a lawsuit against newspaper The Des Moines Register. The suit also targets parent company Gannett and pollster Ann Selzer. Of all things, Trump is retroactively accusing the paper of “brazen election interference”, for printing a poll just prior to Election Day that showed him trailing Kamala Harris in Iowa. Trump won Iowa by a 15% margin, so clearly no harm was caused. A poll is a poll. To punish a journalistic outlet for reporting the results of a poll, one of the most basic elements of election reporting, is truly chilling. Unlike ABC News, the Register so far is fighting the suit. The Nation‘s Chris Lehmann recently spoke on Democracy Now! about Trump’s war on the free press, which he has ostensibly begun before even taking office. This after publishing his warning piece “Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started“. “This is a show of power on the part of an administration that, we know from its prior turn in office, takes every opportunity to demonize, harass, and intimidate the free press,” Lehman said. Lehman warned that Trump and J.D. Vance are admirers of Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, who managed to turn news media into a party propaganda arm. Trump Escalates War on Press & Some Outlets Are “Capitulating Preemptively” to Pressure (Democracy Now!) Trump’s Attack on the Free Press Is Just Getting Started (The Nation) Enemy of the People: Trump’s War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy (Harvard Kennedy Law School)