Trump Wants To Shut Down the Free Press for Good*
Published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
(Germany) on 16 September 2025
by Michael Hanfeld (link to
original)
Donald Trump is suing The New York Times for $15 billion. He is continuing his campaign against the free press. He has a plan. At the end lies the destruction of democracy.
It was to be expected that Donald Trump would sue The New York Times. He is demanding $15 billion for alleged defamation; he is suing the newspaper, four of its employees and the publisher Penguin Random House, which published a book authored by two of the four journalists he is suing**.
“That stops, NOW!” Trump wrote.
The president went on a tirade on his social network, Truth Social. The Times is a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party,” “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country,” Trump wrote. He claimed it had spread lies about him, his family, his businesses, the MAGA movement and the United States for decades, and that it has been “allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”
Trump writes “now” in capital letters, likely in the belief that he will succeed in this strike against the free press as well. He has his own platform. With Fox News, he has a broadcaster loyal to him. He has the support of the tech tycoons who control the internet and social media. He pressured broadcaster CBS into a settlement of more than $32 million, enabling its parent company, Paramount, to obtain media regulator approval for its acquisition by Skydance Media.***
David Ellison, the son of Trump’s friend and richest man in the world Larry Ellison, leads Skydance. Next, the now merged Paramount Skydance allegedly intends to purchase Warner Bros Discovery. The Trump camp would get hold of the news broadcaster CNN in this case. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission chair, would sign off on this.
The end of satirist and Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” has already been announced. Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion for its reporting on Trump’s alleged birthday greeting to sex criminal Jeffery Epstein; last year he squeezed $15 million out of broadcaster ABC. The Washington Post, indispensable as a critical voice, was undermined in Trump’s favor by its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. There is no more money for publicly financed broadcasters, domestic or abroad. Trump is locking out insubordinate media like the Associated Press.
Point for point, he is working through what the conservative manifesto Project 2025 demands. The goal: the destruction of the free press and democracy with it. Trump gets closer to this day by day.
*Editor’s note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
**Editor’s note: The suit against The Times was dismissed on Sept. 19, though Pres. Trump was given 28 days to refile.
***Editor’s note: Pres. Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS parent company Paramount concerning a dispute about the CBS program “60 Minutes.” The lawsuit was settled for $16 million.
It was to be expected that Donald Trump would sue The New York Times. He is demanding $15 billion for alleged defamation; he is suing the newspaper, four of its employees and the publisher Penguin Random House, which published a book authored by two of the four journalists he is suing**.
“That stops, NOW!” Trump wrote.
The president went on a tirade on his social network, Truth Social. The Times is a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party,” “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country,” Trump wrote. He claimed it had spread lies about him, his family, his businesses, the MAGA movement and the United States for decades, and that it has been “allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”
Trump writes “now” in capital letters, likely in the belief that he will succeed in this strike against the free press as well. He has his own platform. With Fox News, he has a broadcaster loyal to him. He has the support of the tech tycoons who control the internet and social media. He pressured broadcaster CBS into a settlement of more than $32 million, enabling its parent company, Paramount, to obtain media regulator approval for its acquisition by Skydance Media.***
David Ellison, the son of Trump’s friend and richest man in the world Larry Ellison, leads Skydance. Next, the now merged Paramount Skydance allegedly intends to purchase Warner Bros Discovery. The Trump camp would get hold of the news broadcaster CNN in this case. Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission chair, would sign off on this.
The end of satirist and Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” has already been announced. Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion for its reporting on Trump’s alleged birthday greeting to sex criminal Jeffery Epstein; last year he squeezed $15 million out of broadcaster ABC. The Washington Post, indispensable as a critical voice, was undermined in Trump’s favor by its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. There is no more money for publicly financed broadcasters, domestic or abroad. Trump is locking out insubordinate media like the Associated Press.
Point for point, he is working through what the conservative manifesto Project 2025 demands. The goal: the destruction of the free press and democracy with it. Trump gets closer to this day by day.
*Editor’s note: This article is available in its original language with a paid subscription.
**Editor’s note: The suit against The Times was dismissed on Sept. 19, though Pres. Trump was given 28 days to refile.
***Editor’s note: Pres. Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS parent company Paramount concerning a dispute about the CBS program “60 Minutes.” The lawsuit was settled for $16 million.
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