Richard Nixon had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with the press, but nothing comes close to President Trump’s constant barrage of insults, name-calling, rude and dismissive behavior towards the media. With the exception of Fox News, which has as much fed Trump talking points as endorsed his own, those reporting on Donald J. Trump and his government have been labeled as “fake news” on a regular basis. The irony is Trump and his revolving door of press secretaries have littered the press corps with far more lies than truth, and it has required fact checkers to filter what is claimed by the White House to ensure accurate information. Indeed, even though it’s the constitutional right and duty of the press to hold the President accountable for his actions and report the truth, journalists who have dared ask Trump tough questions have been continually berated and insulted, often told by the commander-in-chief that they should be congratulating him instead, sometimes thrown under bus because of their ethnicity (when a CBS reporter of Chinese descent asked about the coronavirus — aka “China-virus” for Trump), and, in the case of Jim Acosta from CNN, even barred from his press briefings. In frustration, Trump suspended press briefings for weeks on end then resumed them during the coronavirus pandemic as Trump pep rallies.
Trump made a complete mess of the protests in response to the George Flloyd killing by Minnesota police officers, demonstrating his disregard for our constitutional rights of peaceful assembly as well. In his infinite wisdom, the president decided to have peaceful protesters forcibly removed from Lafayette Square by law enforcement officials with tear gas to stage an appearance across the street in front of St. John’s Church in which he held up a bible as a photo prop. This understandably sparked outrage and condemnation from top democrats, religious leaders, and even church officials who never authorized Trump to come there.
Two other interrelated ways that Trump have violated democratic norms are conspiring with foreign nations against the United States and working to undermine the sanctity of American electoral system policy. For nearly two years, findings and conclusions of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 United States presidential election, along with allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, and allegations of obstruction of justice. The report found that Trump and his administration were anxious to cooperate with Russia against Hillary Clinton even if they were unsuccessful in doing so, and there were countless attempts to obstruct the ensuing investigation which Attorney General Barr ultimately misinterpreted as ineligible for charge against a sitting president. A few months after the report was released, Trump was investigated again and ultimately impeached by the House (only the third time in history) after he was shown to have pressured Ukrainian president Zelensky to announce an investigation into the Bidens that would benefit Trump’s re-election bid and to promote a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine was actually behind interference in the 2016 election in direct opposition to the Mueller report.
And if that wasn’t enough, Trump recently hired top RNC and Trump campaign donor, Louis DeJoy, as USPS Postmaster General. Despite originating from the private sector and having no postal service experience whatsoever, DeJoy quickly eliminated employee overtime, removed mail-sorting machines from postal facilities, and shuffled Postal Service leadership, all of which have combined to delay mail service and raise concerns over whether USPS can process the record number of ballots expected to be mailed for the 2020 election due to the pandemic. Such a concern is disturbingly in sync with Trump’s own baseless claims that absentee ballots will result in a rigged election (especially if he loses), warrant legal review (by the supreme court that he has stacked), and ultimately justify Trump not relinquishing power.
