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Donald Trump’s war on the press usually comes from a place of strength. After all, not only has Trump traditionally been a ratings magnet, but he’s also the president of the United States. That’s a position that tends to give you pretty good leverage.

In his second term, he has consistently picked when he has had the advantage. In his legally dubious lawsuits against CBS over the network editing an interview of Kamala Harris, he had the leverage of the company’s pending merger with Skydance—a merger which required approval from a top Trump ally on the Federal Communications Commission. It was the same when he tried to ban the Associated Press from the White House unless they adopted his preferred nomenclature of “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico. Either the company that writes the definitive stylebook for the American media would bend to his will or it would weaken the nonprofit press syndicate by making it far more difficult to provide White House coverage at a time when print journalism is facing increased financial pressure.

That’s not the case with the latest offensive he’s launched in a war with the media that started long before his entry into presidential politics and dates back to various feuds with local reporters when Trump was simply a New York real estate investor.

His effort to expel CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House does not come from a place of leverage. Instead, it happened impulsively, at a time when Trump’s political fortunes are at a nadir. His favorability rating in polling is even lower than it was in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6........

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