‘Death by a thousand cuts’: How experts warn Trump could use an authoritarian playbook to go after the media

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to go after much of the media in his second term, threatening to jail journalists, revoke broadcast licenses and target outlets with a flurry of lawsuits. It’s a playbook he’s threatened to use before.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to go after much of the media in his second term, threatening to jail journalists, revoke broadcast licenses and target outlets with a flurry of lawsuits. It’s a playbook he’s threatened to use before. During his first term in the White House, Trump regularly tangled with journalists, assailed the press as the “enemy of the people,” and banned reporters from official briefings. In recent months on the campaign trail, Trump employed dark and violent rhetoric to attack the media — telling a crowd this week that he wouldn’t mind if journalists got shot — and sparking fears he will attempt to weaponize the government against the free press. Experts on authoritarian leadership in Europe say that in a second term, enabled by more loyalists and fewer guardrails around him, Trump could do extensive damage to press freedom in the United States. A look at some countries in Europe, where Democracy is “backsliding” portends how it can happen. Sharon Moshavi, president of the International Center for Journalists, said that in countries that have experienced a dismantling of the free press, “It’s not one thing — it’s not ‘we’re going to jail journalists.’” Governments around the world controlled by authoritarians and strongmen, including Russia, Hungary, India, and until recently, Poland, have moved to muzzle the free press and crush dissent, she said. Trump has praised the leaders of many of these nations, especially Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán. “It’s death by a thousand cuts. It’s attacks from multiple angles,” she said.