Check out any bookseller online. There’s a “how-to” book for everything you might want to imagine, including: how to bake bread, knit socks, draw calligraphy, set up a wood shop or grow food anywhere.

And somewhere, I’m convinced, there’s also a “how-to” book on becoming an autocrat. First step: silence and control the media. It’s the playbook successfully used by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin. And it’s the same playbook used today by Donald Trump.

Trump’s relationship with the media is complicated. He is partly a creation of the media. He wouldn’t be where he is today — he’d be remembered only as a New York developer — had he not first been lionized by New York tabloid society pages, and later awarded by NBC with 14 years on national television as host of “The Apprentice.”

But once he jumped into politics, Trump turned on the very people who made him. As a candidate and as president, he attacked the media as “fake news.” He called them “the enemy of the people.” He attacked reporters covering his campaign rallies to the point where some news outlets provided reporters with security. He blamed the media for not declaring him the winner in 2020. And, as candidate for reelection in 2024, he vowed to get even with those in the media who had not treated him “fairly.” Translation: those who had not repeated his lies.

Promise made, promise kept. Trump has, in effect, declared war on the media. As if........

© The Hill