Trump’s War on Journalists

“The recent subpoenas of reporters make clear that the President is trying to threaten the press. Few protections are in place to stop him.

By Ruth MarcusJuly 18, 2026

For years now, in office and out, Donald Trump has been unabashed about his desire to see reporters behind bars. The President’s fantasies can, at times, take on a lurid tone. Campaigning for Republican candidates during the 2022 midterms, Trump assailed the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs, the landmark abortion case, and outlined his preferred approach to identifying the source: “The reporter goes to jail. When the reporter learns that he’s going to be married in two days to a certain prisoner that’s extremely strong, tough, and mean, he will say, he or she, ‘I think I’m going to give you the information. Here’s the leaker, get me the hell out of here.’ ” This April, after it was reported that a crew member was missing from an American fighter jet that had been shot down in Iran, Trump vowed that the person who had spoken to the press would be quickly outed: “We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’ ”

No one went to jail, but Trump has seized on another opportunity to threaten journalists. Earlier this month, the Times reported that he was forced to ditch his new Air Force One, given to him by the Qataris, for part of the ride home from the NATO summit in Turkey; the plane allegedly lacked anti-missile capabilities. (Trump had claimed that he was taking a last spin in the previous Air Force One “for old time’s sake.”) According to the Times, a senior F.B.I. official asked the newspaper to hold the story, citing national security. The Times declined to comply. Two days later, three journalists received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Manhattan. The Times later reported that the White House had instructed the director of the F.B.I., Kash Patel, to oversee an investigation into the leak, and that Patel had spent the day the subpoenas were issued holed up at the White House—not the ordinary locus for a law-enforcement operation. The Times, in a sealed filing that it sought to have publicly released, moved to quash the subpoenas, saying that they were “brought in bad faith to punish The Times for its coverage.”