“A great step forward for the liberation of our Americas from one of the largest and most unpunished powers: the corrupt media.”
—Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, a close associate of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, after being awarded $40 million in a libel suit against the newspaper El Universo, which had the temerity to publish an editor calling him a dictator.
“The FAKE NEWS media…is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people! SICK!
—Donald Trump 4:32 p.m. tweet, Feb. 17, 2017.
“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!”
—Donald Trump 6:03 a.m. tweet, Oct. 29, 2018.
“The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
—Donald Trump 11:41 a.m. tweet, April 5, 2019.
“We’re going to open up those libel laws so 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.”
—Donald Trump, in a campaign speech in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb. 26, 2016.
“Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!”
—Donald Trump tweet, Oct. 5, 2017, calling for an investigation of the news media, apparently unaware of the First Amendment which says, in part, Congress “shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
“We made them sign papers and everything…all of them, all lined up. Every day, I have a meeting at 12:30…and we plan the evening news.”
—Vladimiro Montesinos, former head of Peru’s intelligence service under President Alberto Fujimori, in late 1999, after paying $21 million to two television stations, giving him control over news programming, and bribing a stockholder of another in exchange for the firing of two investigative reporters.
“We ought to start our own network and put some real news out there, because they are so bad for our country. We’re looking at that. We should do something about it, too. Put some really talented people and get a real voice out there, not a voice that’s fake.”
—Donald Trump, on starting his own news network to counter CNN, in Oct. 3, 2019, speech to seniors at The Villages, Florida (an idea also floated in tweets on Nov. 26, 2018, and June 15, 2016).
Louisiana Voice 
Being a big fan of that First Amendment thingy and the proud holder of a bachelor’s degree in journalism, with 43 years’ experience in news and communications, I find trump and his minions to be the greatest threat to our representative republic in our history. I am not naive enough to believe that all true Americans would revere the First Amendment, the Constitution, freedom of the press and personal expression, and loathe authoritarianism and censorship. I’ve had my share of arguments with people who don’t support a free press and think journalists are the enemy. I just never expected that attitude from the so-called president if the United States.
earthmother – I agree with your shock that a president of the United States would actively work against our free press. However, I am not shocked that Trump would do this. His open lust to become a dictator foretells that he would want to control “everything”. But, the most shocking thing and the most disturbing thing to me is the support and protection that Trump receives from our elected Republican Senate to do anything he wants….how close is this coming to dictatorship…the door certainly seems to be ajar? Do they not realize how destructive this is for them?
Dump Trump – Make American Great Again
President Trump employs the most basic tool of brainwashing – endless repetition of the same lies. If repeated often enough, his lies become the only truth to his supporters who dismiss any contradiction, even if presented with what, to others, is incontrovertible evidence. His 40% have fully bought into the worst of these lies, that the free press is the enemy of the people, and they now look only to him for the “truth” about any and everything. If the media they consume validates it 100%, that’s good. If they deviate from it at all, they are traitorous.
Amen to earthmother, Edith, and CJG!
P. S. As of mid-December 2019, the Washington Post had documented over 15,400 incidents of lies and misrepresentation by President Trump over 1.055 days of his administration. That works out to almost 15 per day, on average, though the frequency has increased dramatically over the past year. If he only lied or misrepresented things once a day, it would be enough to question why his supporters see no problem with it Of course, as noted, they see his every utterance as the truth -even when it directly contradicts his penultimate utterance. Brainwashing accomplished.
Thanks for bringing these disturbing observations to wider attention. Happy New Year.
Well said by yall. Observing Trump and Melanieeee at Mar Lago, she appears to be missing her mushroom treatment. His supporters do not care what he says because they are too ignorant to know he is lying and they believe wrestling is real. thanks ron thompson