Trump and the World of the Shadows

The president attempts to bully the media and disguise reality.

The New York Times, The Boston Globe and another 300 U.S. newspapers have published coordinated editorials on the continuous, planned and systematic attacks that President Donald Trump has mounted against them, aimed at discrediting, and ultimately suffocating them to the point of oblivion. Showing solidarity with these media outlets is not a response to any corporate impulse, but a response to the duty of any citizen whose freedoms are under threat. Trump attacks the media for the same reason he puts his staunchest supporters in charge of institutions without considering merit or ability: to clear the way so that he can behave like an autocrat within one of the most established democracies in the world.

Trump’s strategy against the press is all the more perverse because of his resolve to present the press with the unbearable choice of going against its convictions and becoming part of the public dispute in order to defend itself, or conforming strictly to the role of reporting on the country’s problems, despite its awareness of the risks involved. However, the enormous power of the president of the United States, which Trump aspires to use to serve his own interests rather than those of the country that entrusted him with it, is not enough to daze the citizens, both in the United States and beyond who are committed to the system of democracy. These people know that the U.S. press and immigrants share the great honor of being the scapegoats in a form of exercising power that, instead of making America greater, will turn it into a monster of colossal proportions. They also know that the lies that Trump resorts to are not so much intended to misinform citizens as to disguise the reality that the papers attempt to report on, and that treating the latter as political agents by declaring them enemies is a means of marginalizing Congress and the Senate, wherein lie the democratic limits on his wishes.

The fact that in the United States, power distorts the public agenda by making a target of the press, does not relieve the press of the duty not to distort it and give in to sensationalism. The U.S. papers have not done this, despite unrelenting bullying by Trump and his administration, and they have avoided giving pride of place to matters that are mere decoys until the last minute, even though these may affect them directly. Through this resistance, they have revealed a reality that Europe, where some governments are sympathetic to the change of course in the U.S. presidency, should take note of: populism and sensationalism are two sides of the same coin, and both can end up destroying democracy. President Trump is determined to align the United States with the world of the shadows, showing that he is in agreement with authoritarian regimes and transforming the America of Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Obama into a sorrowful relic. The U.S. press has just told him that, although it will not be able to prevent him from doing this, it will stand up to him publicly with regard to his sinister plan.