The mainstream American news media have failed as an institution to properly confront the country’s worsening democracy crisis in the Age of Trump. He is America’s first elected autocrat. His appetite for unlimited power is growing. It will likely never be satisfied.

In one of the most recent examples, Trump recently told NBC News' Kristen Welker that he does not know if he is obligated to uphold and obey the United States Constitution. In response to a question about the constitutionally guaranteed right of due process and the migrants and others deported to the infamous foreign prison in El Salvador, Trump said, “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court say. They have a different interpretation."

Trump’s statement that he does not know if he is obligated to obey and uphold the Constitution should have dominated the news coverage for the foreseeable future. Moreover, Trump’s repeated hostility and disregard towards America’s democratic norms should be the master narrative frame that structures the news media’s coverage of him and his administration. Instead, Trump’s unprecedented statement — what should be treated as a national emergency — was lost in the churn of the 24/7 news media and the bottomless maw of the attention economy and distraction experience machine.

Conservative legal scholar and former judge Michael Luttig told MSNBC's Nicole Wallace that Trump's answer is "perhaps the most important words ever spoken by a president of the United States." Luttig warned that this is "one of the most important stories of our times.” He continued: "I'm quite confident that the president was saying what is on his mind, and that is that he, the president of the United States, doesn't necessarily believe that he is obligated to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as it is interpreted by the Supreme Court."

Related

In another escalation in their campaign against American democracy and the rule of law, Trump and his agents are now signaling that the constitutionally guaranteed right of habeas corpus may be suspended to facilitate Trump’s mass deportation campaign against “illegal aliens” and other “undesirables.” Such an extreme action must be approved by Congress. The right of habeas corpus has only been suspended four times in American history.

These threats to take away a foundational civil right were mostly treated as a curiosity by the mainstream news media.

As with Trump’s recent statement about disregarding the Constitution, these threats to take away a foundational civil right were mostly treated as a curiosity by the mainstream news media. For example, a basic search of The New York Times and The Washington Post show that the Trump administration’s threat to end habeas corpus did not receive sustained featured coverage.

Donald Trump and his agents have made many such threats against American democracy and its institutions and norms during the 2024 campaign and his second term in office — many of these threats have been fulfilled.

The Democrats and the so-called Resistance are celebrating how the courts and civil society organizations appear to be blunting Trump’s ‘shock and awe” and shock therapy campaign against American democracy and the American people. However, these celebrations are premature and ignore how the Trump administration is disregarding many of these rulings by the courts. There has been grave damage already done by Trump during these first 100 days of his return to power that cannot be easily remedied. In all, too many observers are confusing some selective momentary pauses by Trump and his MAGA forces to consolidate their gains, regroup, resupply, and reassess how to best continue their campaign against democracy and civil society. 

Donald Trump’s power and willingness to punish and train the news media to serve his agenda through various means, both legal and extra-legal, has created a state of anticipatory obedience, aka surrender, collaboration, and a collective chilling effect across the news media.

The American mainstream media has also been rolled over by Donald Trump and his forces' deft use of the propaganda technique known as “flooding the zone,” where so much happens so quickly that the target does not know where and how to focus.

Kenneth Lowande, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan, explained how this many years-long pattern of failures by the American news media is collectively enabling Donald Trump and his MAGA movement’s authoritarian agenda:

The Trump........

© Salon