Trump Punishes AP for Exercising Its Free Speech Rights

Donald Trump seems to think executive orders are binding, not merely on federal workers who report to him, but on literally everyone. Hence his quixotic attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America—and to force media sources like the Associated Press to follow along.

It seems appropriate to give this report to the AP itself:

The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the blocking of its journalists. …

The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech—in this case not changing its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.

“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government,” the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

In the world some of us remember, the entire White House press corps would have boycotted the briefing room in protest, to preserve their own right to disagree with the government. As it is, Trump is setting the precedent that he can punish the media for refusing to follow his orders.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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