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Courts Keep Siding With the Press as Trump’s Pressure Campaign Rolls On

Slow lawsuits plus regulatory threats let the White House squeeze newsrooms despite repeated First Amendment losses.

Overview

  • U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal on April 13 and allowed him to file a revised complaint.
  • Judges recently blocked an order to cut public broadcasting funds, restored Voice of America operations, and twice struck down Pentagon press-access rules as unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
  • The White House continues off-court pressure by calling for firings and hinting at regulatory action, with Trump targeting ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s show.
  • ABC and CBS settled separate suits that experts viewed as weak, including ABC’s $15 million donation and an apology over George Stephanopoulos’s on-air description of a civil judgment.
  • The NPR funding fight shows how slow court relief can arrive too late to fix harm after the financing agency was dismantled and its money was spent.