The president of the United States of America views the media as his enemy even as he pretends not to and deflects it to the people of America. He would list only a few news outlets in his tweets, who have been critical of his administration, calling them fake, when the American people who listen, read and watch the news believe what is seen, read and heard, including some of his diehard supporters. Noticeably absent among the choice of the media list is Fox News who had to pony up $787M settlement to Dominion Voting System over stolen election lies. The president himself has a legacy of lies. The Washington Post documented 30573 false or misleading claims during his first term alone. The litany of lies continues today.

He has always utilized this statement, a pet locution of autocrats, in times when he has faced heavy criticism from the media. Expressing discontent over leaks from the FBI and equally not happy with criticism for separating children from their parents as a result of his immigration policy intended to deter illegal migration to the United States, on June 17, 2018, he wasted no time to repeat what is now expected to be heard anytime he speaks: “the enemy of the people,” pointing to the press in attendance. Unwittingly, he has never realized that the use of this line has a horrid history.

The statement cannot be helpful to him as the American media have evolved from an authoritarian principle to one of libertarian with prime functions to advance the interests of its citizens. This happened in the Eighteenth century. By the end of that time, it was preserved in a form that ensures it will be protected and respected, in our constitution.

The First Amendment provides proof to this, in the following lines: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.”

The media are commonly deemed the messenger, however because reporters and editors make judgments on the news of particular stories, it becomes easy for anyone to think that such decisions could be based on personal values, discounting the concern of large segments of their audience.

But despite the media’s unhealthy position relative to all government officials, few in the mainstream media will take comfort from diminishing the office of the presidency without a reason of constitutional proportion. Reporters’ task is to directly reflect the world to the reader or viewer without any of the distortions or biases that will alter the real view. The BBC’s error in their documentary last year was not intentional, a matter the courts, I expect to agree with.

The press sometimes adopts specific values to evaluate the status quo. It is within the rights of the media to do so. As our current president compromises the freedom of the press, one of his predecessors, Thomas Jefferson had this to say: “Let everyman who has something to say on public issues express himself, regardless of whether what he had to say is true or false and let the publiic ultimately decide.”

Jefferson is said to have remarked that, “he would prefer newspapers without a government to a government without newspapers.” But our current president would praise a Republican congressman, Greg Gainforte, for slamming a reporter to the ground, calling him a “tough cookie, that’s my type of guy,” he went on.

There is every reason for the current president of the United States to dislike the press and in the process, attack the 1st amendment. “He lies, cheats, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly.”

Former Republican governor, Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential debate referred to Donald J. Trump as, “a chaos candidate and he will be a chaos president.”