Trump: 'Government should come down hard' on MSNBC and 'make them pay' for criticizing him
In a late-night Truth Social post, former President Donald Trump suggested that, if elected to another term as president, he would weaponize the government against the media for reporting critically on him.
"MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE," Trump wrote around 11 PM Tuesday night. "Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country."
"Our so-called 'government' should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity," he added. "Much more to come, watch!"
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Trump's post isn't just an empty threat. As the New York Times previously reported, a slew of conservative groups are already in the midst of planning a sweeping presidential transition plan dubbed "Project 2025," in which a Republican administration would have sweeping new executive powers and staff federal agencies with loyalists eager to use their positions to accomplish far-right political goals. The Times explicitly mentioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — which regulates broadcast media — as in the crosshairs of Trump and Project 2025.
"The president’s plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done since F.D.R.’s New Deal," former Trump White House aide John McEntee told the Times in July. "Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul."
As president, Trump frequently made the media the target of his rage. In 2018, he described journalists as "the enemy of the people" and often singled out members of the media in the press pen, encouraging attendees of his campaign rallies to shout invective at reporters.
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