How Donald Trump intends to “straighten out the press”

(Washington) Plenty of legal proceedings, verbal attacks, threats to screen journalists admitted to the White House… Even before starting his second term, Donald Trump launched the offensive against those he calls “the enemies of people”, the media.

“We must straighten out the press”: this is the program set by the Republican on Monday during his first press conference since the presidential election of November 5.

To get there, the 78-year-old billionaire, who will take office on January 20, will first go through the courts, with an unprecedented avalanche of complaints on various grounds including defamation.

In his sights: a legend of American journalism, Bob Woodward, in a recordings case, but also the CBS channel, accused of having manipulated an interview with Kamala Harris in such a way as to make the vice-president and Democratic candidate appear unsuccessful , in a better light.

He has already filed a complaint against an Iowa daily for publishing a poll that was unfavorable to him, while the ABC television network has agreed to pay $15 million to end a defamation proceeding.

The Republican also estimated that the New York Times and the Washington Post should be deprived of the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Russian interference operations around the 2016 election, which he won.

« S’autocensors »

Many lawyers believe that many procedures will not succeed. Still, they create “an intimidation effect,” judges Melissa Camacho, professor of communications at San Francisco State University, pointing out the risk that journalists “start to self-censor.”

For Donald Trump, “success is not winning in court, but the media coverage and the concessions he can obtain,” analyzes Khadijah Costley White, professor of journalism at Rutgers University.

The announced battle of the former and now future president against the media will, however, not only be legal.

He placed loyalists in certain key positions. Former presenter Kari Lake, who denies Joe Biden’s victory against Donald Trump in 2020, will take the helm of the public media Voice of America, and entrepreneur and multi-billionaire Elon Musk, charged by the president-elect to reduce spending, promises to cut subsidies for public broadcasting.

Those close to Donald Trump assure that they will dynamite communication practices, starting with the daily “briefing” of White House spokespersons.

The distribution of seats in the famous blue-toned room is managed by the media through the White House Correspondents’ Association, which also organizes the operation of the “pool”, the small group of journalists accompanying the American president in his movements.

“Shake Washington”

During Donald Trump’s first term, this routine meeting was often forgotten, sometimes for long periods of time – more than 300 days in a row.

Unlike Joe Biden, however, the Republican loved exchanges with journalists. And he communicated directly through tweets, at any time of the day or even night.

The Republican “will shake Washington from January 20, and that will happen through the briefing room,” predicts a former spokesperson for Donald Trump, Sean Spicer, in an article published Tuesday on a conservative news site.

Criticizing the good places reserved for major media like the New York Timesthe Washington Post or CNN, he advocates a “first come, first served” system.

The conservatives’ favorite channel, Fox News, is now in the front row of the newsroom, but other favorite media of the American hard right, for example the tabloid New York Postare relegated further from the desk, or even do not have an assigned seat, which reduces their chances of asking a question.

Another avenue studied in the Trump camp: inviting to the briefing podcasters and right-wing influencers on whom the former businessman relied during his campaign.