Donald Trump has spent years painting the press as the “enemy of the people.” While he finds refuge and amplification in friendly ports—Fox News, Newsmax, Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk’s X—he has increasingly made plain his intent on doing battle with the rest.

 Donald Trump has spent years painting the press as the “enemy of the people.” While he finds refuge and amplification in friendly ports—Fox News, Newsmax, Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk’s X—he has increasingly made plain his intent on doing battle with the rest. Media lawyers now fear that Trump will ramp up the deployment of subpoenas, specious lawsuits, court orders, and search warrants to seize reporters’ notes, devices, and source materials. They are gravely concerned that reporters and media institutions will be punished for leaking government secrets. Trump’s lawyers have already threatened or taken legal action against the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, Penguin Random House, and others. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, meanwhile, calls for ending federal funding to NPR and PBS. It insists that there is “no legal entitlement” for the press to have access to the White House “campus.” (Although Trump disavowed Project 2025 during his campaign, he has selected one of its authors, Brendan Carr, who is also an ideological ally of Elon Musk, to head the Federal Communications Commission.) All these threats and potential actions “are the arsenal of a would-be autocrat who seeks to intimidate his critics, protect himself from scrutiny, and go on wearing away at the liberal democratic order,” David Remnick writes. Read his full Comment.