Former president and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump recently called for CBS’ and ABC’s broadcast licenses to be revoked, a continuation of the kind of adversarial rhetoric he has used against the press since his presidency. Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint for the next Republican administration, has also argued for the defunding of public radio and broadcast networks.
Andrea Austria / Media Matters | Trump photo: Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons
Research/Study
“Fake News Networks”: Trump and Project 2025’s goal to attack, defund, and delegitimize the press
Written by Charis Hoard
Published
-
Throughout his reelection campaign, Trump has called for broadcast TV licenses to be revoked, promised investigation into media outlets, and painted the media as “so bad for our country”
-
- Trump called for CBS’ broadcast license to be revoked while accusing the network of editing interview footage to the benefit of Vice President Kamala Harris. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Trump called for the network’s broadcast license to be revoked and claimed that it is trying to “hide [the] fact” that Harris “is a Moron.” In a later post, Trump claimed that CBS’ 60 Minutes “unscrupulously replaced an answer” that Harris had given during an interview with the program with “another answer that had nothing to do with the question asked,” baselessly calling the action “illegal.” [The Hill, 10/10/24; Twitter/X, 10/10/24, 10/14/24; Snopes, 10/11/24]
- In September, Trump called for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked. The morning after his presidential debate with Harris, Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt asked Trump why the ABC moderators didn’t “correct” Harris during the debate. Trump responded, “They’re dishonest, and because I think ABC took a big hit last night. I mean, to be honest, they're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.” [Twitter/X, 9/11/24]
- Trump also attacked debate moderators, ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, for fact-checking his lies and described them as “low lives.” During a speech in Arizona, Trump claimed, “The public was not fooled. They saw right through it, Kamala’s lies and unprecedented partisan interference of two low-life anchors. They’re low lives.” [The Hill, 9/12/24]
- Trump threatened The New York Times, saying, “Wait until you see what I'm going to do with them.” In an interview, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro asked Trump, “How do you fight a legacy media that is once again rigging the informational environment of the election?” Trump replied, “The New York Times is one of the most dishonest of all. I watched this, New York Times, and it's a classic. Wait until you see what I'm going to do with them, you're going to have so much fun.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 10/8/24]
- While discussing his live streamed X interview in August, Trump attacked the media, writing, “I absolutely HATE the Fake News Media. So bad for our Country!” Trump: “All the Fake News wants to report is that the servers crashed (because of the tremendous volume!), and the show opened a little late. What they should be reporting was the incredible number of people that were listening. I absolutely HATE the Fake News Media. So bad for our Country!” [Truth Social, 8/13/24; The New York Times, 8/13/24]
- During an appearance at the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists Convention, Trump attacked moderator and ABC correspondent Rachel Scott for citing his track record on race. Trump: “I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner. A first question. You don’t even say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC? Because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network. And I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit — I love the Black population of this country, I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country.” [The Hill, 7/31/24]
- In October 2023, Trump questioned whether CBS News should be able to access public airwaves after its interview with President Joe Biden. In a post on Truth Social after CBS’ interview with Biden, Trump stated: “The show ‘60 Minutes’ should be ashamed of themselves. They just interviewed Crooked Joe Biden, and led him along like a lost child. … Why should CBS get free public airwaves for this highly partisan ‘show’[?]” [MSNBC, 10/17/23]
- In late 2023, Trump accused media outlets such as NBC and MSNBC of “Country Threatening Treason” and asserted that he would investigate them if reelected in November. Trump: “They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason.’” [Forbes, 9/24/23]
-
Trump allies and Project 2025 have also attacked the media, promising investigations and proposing defunding public broadcasting
-
- Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon threatened “investigations under the Constitution and by the rule of law” into media for supposedly “colluding with the Justice Department.” He added, “It's coming and we're going to be unrelenting in it because you tried to destroy the American republic and you came very close.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 6/12/24]
- Former Trump Department of Defense and National Security Council staffer Kash Patel appeared on Bannon’s podcast and said, “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 12/5/23]
- Mike Davis, founder of the right-wing legal advocacy group the Article III Project and a rumored future Trump appointee, “has threatened to indict, detain, denaturalize, and deport a handful of Trump critics,” including former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan. [Twitter/X, 11/20/23, 11/16/23; Rolling Stone, 7/9/24]
- Project 2025 includes plans to end public funding for NPR, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As Media Matters has previously noted, Project 2025 lays out “a plan for how a Republican administration might defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which uses taxpayer dollars to help fund public media institutions like PBS and NPR.” The plan also includes encouraging a future Republican administration to “‘reexamine’ its relationship with media outlets and organizations … and suggests that reporters should not have a ‘permanent space’ in the White House.” [Media Matters, 4/26/24, 8/27/24]
-
Trump also attacked the media and journalists during his presidency
-
- Throughout his presidency, Trump attacked journalists, referring to one as a “terrible reporter” and their questions as “horrid.” Another reporter received personal attacks for a quickly-corrected mistake, which Trump cited as an example of “how dishonest the media is.” [CNN, 3/20/20; The Daily Beast, 4/6/20; The Hill, 1/21/17]
- According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Trump posted at least 2,000 times on social media attacking the press and specific reporting. Between June 2015, when he declared his candidacy for the presidency, and April 2020, Trump “tweeted negatively about the press more than once a day” on average. [U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, 4/12/20]
- In a 2018 legal battle over press access, the Trump administration argued that it had “broad discretion” to limit reporter access to White House buildings and events. One journalist also reported there had been a “blackout” on regional media coverage at White House events. [CNN, 11/14/18; Media Matters, 2/1/17; Poynter, 1/20/17]
- At the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump declared that media outlets are an “enemy of the people” and that he is “fighting the fake news.” Trump has repeatedly espoused similar sentiments, declaring to audiences that “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading” from the “fake news” is “not what’s happening” and that the “totally dishonest TV pundits” need to be held “accountable.” [Media Matters, 2/24/17; CNN, 7/25/18; NBC News, 3/29/19]