Donald Trump is scared of the truth

Sep 19, 2026

At 3:29 this afternoon, Donald Trump held a strategic press conference in the Oval Office right before he left to spend a secluded weekend at Camp David away from the eyes of the press and the public. As the cameras came on, the president was already sitting in his high leather chair inside the Oval Office, surrounded on both sides by his yes-men and women, all dressed in the approved color palette those near him must wear. He fiddled with his papers, holding up random ones as proof that what he was saying was true, and then read a prepared statement announcing a deal that all 50 states had supposedly joined, yet he couldn’t provide a single detail.

But the real story behind this event was much more alarming. The President took credit for foreign leaders being elected into office. He declared it was not believable that Black and Jewish people could vote for a Democrat. He wandered into a story about grabbing Melania’s bottom on an escalator. Most disturbing of all was that the President of the United States of America announced a ban not just on his latest media targets, but this time he declared a “ban on the free press” itself.

Those were his own words. He wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on the American people; he was saying, for all to hear, exactly what his end goal is. He wants complete control of everything that we see and hear. He only wants positive press and accolades. He wants nothing negative said at any time. The truth has absolutely no place in Donald Trump’s ideal country, because it can only get in the way of his plans for complete control. Even after a reporter reminded him that the First Amendment includes the freedom of the press, he still didn’t even pretend to care, saying, “Thank you for telling me that.”

When he was asked if he was trying to intimidate the press, he said, “No, no, no. I, I dislike dishonest press like you. I think you’re terrible.” When asked whether the ban would survive a court challenge, given that his White House was forced by a federal judge to restore CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credential in 2018, he said, “I think it’s good to point it out whether it survives or doesn’t. I mean, I don’t think what a court should allow depends on the judge you get, to be honest with you. I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day.”

He was being honest. He thinks he should get to decide what is true and what is fake, and that judges should stop whatever he doesn’t want said from being said. What he was describing is the same type of system that the Soviet Union built, where the newspaper named “Truth” printed only what the Kremlin approved, and journalists who refused to go along with the propaganda takeover were imprisoned or worse, killed.

Earlier today, less than a half hour before his Oval Office event, Donald Trump had posted the full announcement of his ban on Truth Social: “I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS! Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

Meaning, this is just the beginning. They are coming for more outlets and members of the press. He was telling every journalist, writer, content creator, and anyone else using their voice to pay attention. And today especially, he sent a direct message to those in legacy media: fall in line or lose access. If Donald Trump follows the evil playbook, losing access may very well be the least of the press’s problems soon enough.

When reporters asked him what the ban would actually look like, Trump’s response made no sense: “When you say the ban, which you know, you know how many bans I’m involved in? I got more bans going out. I’ve got more bans going than any human being.” He posted about the ban minutes before this event, and when he was asked about it, he had already forgotten what he just announced. The reporter tried again, repeating the question, and Trump said, “Oh, the ban on the free press, right?” Eventually he shared more about his impromptu ban, “A very simple ban. I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can and if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I’d love it.” He eventually named the New York Times and the Washington Post as potential future targets, adding, “We’re probably not going to display the paper anymore in the White House, those papers. But we haven’t taken the step of throwing them out. But they’re fake news. Totally. New York Times is so fake. Washington Post is disgusting.”

During the event, Donald Trump held up printouts from Breitbart News, a far-right propaganda outlet co-owned by the Mercer family, billionaire Republican mega-donors who have financially supported Trump’s Presidential rise from the beginning. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, once described it as “the platform for the alt-right.” When Trump was asked which outlets cover him fairly, he pointed to that printout and said, “I don’t get fair press. I get it from Breitbart. I get it from a little bit from Fox. Fox is the worst. I think Fox has frankly the worst polls in the whole business.” The network that led to the MAGA brainwashing of so many Americans, and that is often seen as the unofficial Republican Party messaging machine for decades, is now not loyal enough.

At one point, Kelly O’Donnell from NBC began to ask a follow-up question. Trump cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “Not you,” he said, and immediately pointed to a different reporter. Danny Kemp from AFP (Agence France-Presse) asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the leader of one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world, and his visit to the White House in the coming weeks. Kemp asked, “China is one of the most repressive countries for journalists in the world. What signal does it send...” Trump interrupted him: “Well, I don’t know about that. I think we’re repressive also. We get fake news. We don’t repress, but they write fake news.” The President of the United States just compared his own country’s treatment of the press to China’s.

In China, the Communist Party controls all media. There is no independent press or outside perspective. There are no corrections and no dissent. The Chinese people do not have access to information about their own country unless the government has approved the message. That is what the President of the United States said we resemble. Almost immediately he grew bored of the discussion and started talking about the upcoming state dinner, saying, “I literally could tell you that thousands of people would love to be at that dinner. This is a very tough ticket for me. I’ve told a lot of very good friends of mine, you just can’t come.” This was an interesting way to tell the world that his friends all want to rub elbows with one of the leading dictators on the planet. Reports are saying that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, and Michael Dell are all on the guest list. The American oligarchs are all lined up to be invited to this party.

Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as Trump’s press secretary during his first term, was one of the people standing behind him in the Oval Office today. At one point, she jumped in to defend the president and his new press ban, saying, “I think it’s hard for you to argue against a free press when you’re literally standing in the Oval Office asking questions of the President of the United States,” she said. “He’s been more accessible and easier to talk to than any president in history. Think about the previous administration, where he could barely get through a press conference, and yet you have the opportunity to stand here in the Oval Office and ask questions to the leader of the free world. I mean, that’s pretty free, and you’re standing here asking those questions.”

She did not seem to realize that she had just made the case against the very thing she was defending. By her own definition, freedom of the press means standing in front of the president and asking questions. But the man she was defending had just stripped that right from three major news organizations to do exactly what she said made them free. By her own logic, the moment those reporters can no longer stand in that room, the press is no longer free.

The response to Trump’s latest attack on the First Amendment and the free press came quickly. Jacqui Heinrich, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and a Fox News reporter, issued a statement that read: “The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a ‘ban on the free press.’ This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies, and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.” Heinrich knows that unless a stand is taken now, he will come after them all.

Nicolle Wallace said, “He wants people to be afraid to cover him aggressively, and that, to me, seems like the intent of today’s ban.” Reporters Without Borders added: “Press access is not a privilege for journalists. It’s a right.” Senator Schumer wrote, “Donald Trump just did what dictators throughout history have done.” Representative Jim McGovern said, “Fascist and communist governments limit press access to only favorable outlets, persecute journalists, and suppress truthful reporting. Trump’s administration is doing all of that.” The Freedom of the Press Foundation summed it up perfectly: “It’s difficult to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment than Trump banning news outlets from the People’s House for criticizing the government. It’s also hard to imagine a dumber move. These outrageous attacks only demonstrate how scared he is of an informed public.”

This all comes down to the midterm elections. He knows how terrible he is polling, which, by extension, is how those he endorses and so many Republicans in general are polling. He knows the only way to hide that, and all of his presidential failures, is to stop the media from reporting the truth. He knows this will be brought before the courts and that he will most likely lose, much like he did in 2018 when he banned Jim Acosta, who was with CNN at the time. But he knows that time is of the essence, and any friction he can create in the 46 days until the elections could help him.

The only reason millions of Americans know about the corruption that is happening inside the government right now is because journalists are reporting it. Our government is not being transparent, and the White House is not being even remotely honest. But because reporters are putting in the grueling, hard work, we still know what is happening. That is what Donald Trump is trying to stop. Because every time someone reads about what is actually happening, it costs him power.

Thank you to those of you who support this work with a paid membership. Your $5 a month is what allows me to keep writing every day and, just as importantly, to keep these posts free and accessible to everyone. Those who can pay are the reason those who can’t still have access. And right now, with so much at stake heading into the midterms, that matters more than ever. If you’re in a position to join, I’d be grateful to have you with us.

Today is day three in the hospital with my family member. It’s been exhausting. When I finally got settled in to write tonight’s post, I realized that there is more similarity between the feelings I am experiencing right now, hoping for answers and healing, and how we are living every day under the Trump Regime than I realized before. I know my experience isn’t unique, and many will recognize the same emotions. Everything feels unsettled and unsafe. Nothing is right, and nothing makes sense, and you are just surviving in the moment, trying to hold it together while worst-case scenarios rush through your head faster than you can push them away. That is what it feels like to live in this country right now too. For many of us, the feeling is not as urgent as it is in the hospital, but it’s that same undercurrent constantly pulsing in waves in the background. It’s waking up with dread and uncertainty and forgetting what it felt like when the ground was solid. It is constantly bracing for the next bad thing before the last one has even been processed.

But here is what else I have learned in this hospital. For every terrible moment, there have been good people making it survivable. Today, after my family member had been brought back to the room following a procedure, a volunteer walked by in the hallway with a service dog. I saw humanity right in front of me. Someone who spends hours of her own time training her dog, then comes to the hospital and wanders the halls, stopping at rooms, letting patients interact, giving them a moment of something warm and simple in the middle of one of the scariest experiences of their lives. Nobody is paying her or demanding she do this. She just decided that this was how she wanted to spend her time.

And then there are the nurses, doctors, technicians, housekeeping, care assistants, and the list goes on and on. Actual angels on earth who chose every single day to care for others during some of their hardest moments. They are who make a scary situation survivable.

That is what I keep coming back to tonight. I’m not thinking about Trump trying to block our access to the truth, or his enablers and sycophants who stand behind him in the Oval Office and sell out their country for proximity to his power. They just happen to be the loudest and cruelest. But they are not the majority. The best of us are the ones going about their days, trying to do right by their families, their neighbors, and their communities. The nurse who checks on you one more time before her shift ends. The volunteers walking through hospital hallways just to brighten a stranger’s day. I think about how much worse this moment in history would be if those people did not exist, if all we had were the ones clawing for power and access to easy money.

Like I do every single time Donald Trump attacks the free press, I am asking you to join me in my economic protest. Your paid memberships are how I am able to keep writing these posts night after night and never put a single word behind a paywall or take any outside funds. This is all reader-supported. I take that trust seriously, and I am eternally grateful that you are here and that we are standing together in the resistance.

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