Taming the Press
PrumpTutin vs. The Press: How One Man Declared War on Truth, at Home and Abroad
Donald J. trump—PrumpTutin in full makeup and grievance—hasn’t just attacked the media with insults and slogans. He’s tried to sue it into submission, defund it into silence, and remake it in his own image: obedient, paranoid, and dumb as hell. Whether it’s CNN, the New York Times, or Voice of America, if you told the truth about him, you were the enemy. And enemies get punished.
He started with lawsuits. In 2022, he sued CNN for $475 million, claiming defamation because they called him a racist, a Russian stooge, and—accurately—an insurrectionist. They’d also used the term “The Big Lie” to describe his election fraud nonsense, and he decided that was defamatory. The case was tossed in 2023. No settlement. Just another legal tantrum disguised as patriotism.
Then came The New York Times, sued over a 2019 opinion piece suggesting his campaign had an “overarching deal” with Russia. Dismissed in 2022. No settlement. The Washington Post got the same treatment, sued over columns pointing out that he invited foreign interference in U.S. elections. Also dismissed. Again, no settlement.
But the goal was never to win. It was to punish. To bleed newsrooms dry. To make editors hesitate before assigning the next investigation. To raise the cost of truth.
He sued Bob Woodward and Simon & Schuster in 2023 over The Trump Tapes, an audiobook composed of interviews he’d voluntarily given. After the book was published, he decided—retroactively—that he hadn’t “authorized” it. The court disagreed. Dismissed. No settlement. Another attempt to turn journalism into breach-of-contract cosplay.
One of the few cases that didn’t completely collapse? His 2015 lawsuit against Univision, after they dropped Miss Universe coverage in response to his racist attacks on Mexican immigrants. That one settled quietly, likely with NDA handshakes and a chunk of hush money.
Meanwhile, trump constantly threatened NBC, MSNBC, and Comcast, demanding investigations, license revocations, even shutdowns. Not lawsuits—just autocratic theater, dripping with grievance and cheap cologne.
But while he was suing and threatening the press at home, he launched an international assault on U.S.-funded journalism abroad. In 2020, he appointed far-right filmmaker and Steve Bannon sidekick Michael Pack as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees America’s international broadcasters—Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund.
These agencies were created to combat disinformation in autocratic regimes. Naturally, trump tried to destroy them.
Pack got to work immediately:
- Fired top leadership.
- Revoked editorial firewalls, allowing political interference.
- Froze J-1 visas for foreign journalists, kneecapping reporting teams.
- Defunded the Open Technology Fund, which builds encrypted tools for activists, journalists, and dissidents.
trump smeared Voice of America, accusing it of spreading Chinese propaganda during the pandemic. He didn’t like facts about COVID—or anything else that wasn’t glowing praise. He wanted Radio Free Europe to take it easy on Putin and pals. He wanted Radio Free Asia and MBN to toe the MAGA line. He wanted Open Technology Fund—which helped people in Iran, China, and Russia avoid surveillance—shut down, because apparently the free flow of information is only sacred when it flatters him.
When Biden took office, Michael Pack was forced to resign within hours. Lawsuits had already been filed. Judges ruled Pack’s actions illegal. Some firewalls were restored. But the damage lingered—staff purged, missions disrupted, credibility wounded.
So what filled the void? Easy: Truth Social, where facts go to die and conspiracy theories go to breed.
Forget the New York Times. Forget PBS. Forget Voice of America. The only real news, we’re told, comes from Truth Social, where every post is carefully fact-checked by the voices in trump’s head and time-stamped between Diet Coke refills. Want foreign policy? Read a meme about Putin riding a bear. Want economic analysis? trump’s got a post blaming inflation on windmills. Curious about legal strategy? He’ll let you know in all caps, that the judge is a radical Marxist who hates God.
Because if it’s not on Truth Social, it probably has facts in it. And who needs those?
That’s the damage. PrumpTutin didn’t just lie. He flooded the zone with nonsense, then tore out the institutional brakes that might have stopped it. He sued what he couldn’t control. He defunded what he couldn’t sue. He replaced what he couldn’t destroy. And in the end, he built a media ecosystem that runs on grievance, worship, and willful delusion.
He didn’t have to shut down the press. He just had to make it feel like a liability.
And now millions of Americans live in a world where the only truth that matters is what PrumpTutin posts at 3 a.m. in his pajamas, under a flag he doesn’t deserve.