With every rally and speech, new, more volatile stories emerge concerning the press covering Trump’s campaign. The relationship between these two entities began on a downward trajectory as the press initially fact-checked and published dozens of fabrications spilling from Trump’s stage. However, at this point there are too many lies for the reporters to keep up with.
Trump's contact with the media is becoming nonexistent as he refuses to let the press travel with him, unlike all other candidates, and hardly interacts with them outside of bashing reporters. At Trump’s Palm Springs resort on March 15, the GOP front runner refused to answer questions from the press despite the event being labeled a press conference.
Trump is so defiant of the media outlets covering him that his small and under-qualified PR team rarely interacts with the press and, in Trump-like fashion, never actually answers questions they pose concerning policy or anything relevant to politics.
At this point the only way for reporters to gain information from Trump is via his Twitter or attending an event if they’re one of the lucky ones who haven’t been banned yet. Reporters from Politico, BuzzFeed, New York Times, and others have all been blocked from events after negative coverage of Trump.
Trump has also began turning his crowds against the press. Ever since his Megan Kelly attack that became headline news during debates, Trump has continued the activity of calling out specific journalists and encouraging his followers to target them as well.
It’s not just his followers who follow Trump's lead. Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has allegedly used physical force against reporters (and protestors) with some of the incidents caught on video.
As Trump support continues to grow, concerns about free speech (along with a lengthy list of other rights) in a Trump presidency do too. Would he abolish the White House Correspondence altogether and opt for tweeting out his statements instead?
On a Trump-trajectory like this it’s easy to envision a totalitarian regime where any negative coverage of the president results in punishment. Of course that would never happen, after all, this is America not North Korea.
