Unprecedentedly unpresidential: Trump’s war on journalism

The “enemies of the people” slur against journalists is growing dangerous, writes Raymond Snoddy – what’s the endgame?

Sometimes it is very difficult to decide what is unprecedented or not about the daily utterances of President Donald J. Trump; there are just so many apparently unprecedented things to choose from.

You would think that calling former White House advisor Omarosa Manigault-Newman “a dog” was without parallel. It has certainly been playing big on TV news in the US.

A president to call a senior black woman in the US a dog – surely such a thing has never happened before.

Not so – part of President Trump’s ‘charm’ is his consistency and he has called lots of people of different genders and races dogs.

The select company ranges from journalist and entrepreneur Arianna Huffington, Steve Bannon and Mitt Romney to actress Kristen Stewart. It may be an unprecedented term in the Presidential annals of the US but for Trump it is merely a common term of abuse. Very common.

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

This particular story has a long way to run because Omarosa had a propensity for taping sensitive conversations that have so far included her firing and discussions about how to cope with allegations that in his television days Trump used the ultimate anti-black epithet, the “N” word.

The tape played on CNN featured staffers apparently taking the existence of the “N” tape very seriously and discussing how to “spin” it.

It only remains for the original tape itself to surface. The White House has actually admitted that it cannot guarantee the tape “won’t reveal Trump using he N-word.”

So that’s a yes then and should give pause for thought among the minority of black Americans who voted for Trump.

But what we can say is unprecedented is the decision by more than 200 newspapers in the US to run editorials this week attacking Trump’s repeated characterising of the media as “enemies of the people” or to be precise “enemies of the American people.” [advert position=”left”]

The editorials will not say the same thing. That is up to individual editors. The Boston Globe has simply coordinated the approach on a single day. It is sure to make an impact and in turn should lead to enraged Trump tweets in response.

The White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has repeatedly been given the chance to repudiate the “enemies of the people” jibe and has declined.

Like the use of the word “dog” to describe individuals he dislikes, Trump routinely sprays the media he hates whether it is the New York Times, CNN or NBC with the enemies of the people smear.

The approach of the 200 or so American papers is something that the British press should support – although that will be a step too far for some British nationals which have played fast and loose with similar phrases in slightly different circumstances.

It goes without saying that Trump calling journalists enemies of the people is more than a reputational slur. It could lead to self-censorship or become the precursor to violence against individual journalists in a country with no shortage of guns or people prepared to use them.

It also provides a morale boost to dictatorial regimes everywhere and comfort to leaders such as Cambodia’s Hun Sen as he closes down independent media organisations.

The intervention by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein the Jordanian Prince and diplomat, is almost certainly unprecedented.

Prince Zeid, in an interview with The Guardian, describes the Trump attack on the media as coming “very close to incitement to violence.”

It may one day become a task for the courts to decide in the event a journalist is assaulted at a Trump rally.

The outgoing High Commissioner did not mince his words.

“We begin to see a campaign against the media…that could have potentially, and still can, set in motion a chain of events which could quite easily lead to harm being inflicted on journalists just going about their work and potentially some self-censorship. And in that context it’s getting very close to incitement to violence,” Prince Zeid said.

Will President Trump pay a blind bit of notice? Almost certainly not. He is not a fan of the UN and Prince Zeid has noticed a clear decline in US engagement with human rights issues anywhere since the beginning of the Trump Presidency.

How is this drama playing out in terms of public support for President Trump?

Surprisingly well. Trump is holding onto his core support and the latest CNN poll shows 42 per cent think Trump is dong a good job, actually up a few percentage points compared with a few months ago.

Anecdotally, travelling through Tennessee you see defiant posters declaring “Deplorables for Trump” in a reference to one of Hillary Clinton’s worst campaign errors.

And ask a Trump supporting oil industry executive about Trump’s attitude to women and she replies: “I let that go over my head, Trump is good for business.”

While “unprecedented” things will continue to happen in the world according to Trump, is there any sign of an endgame?

Not before the Mueller inquiry reports – although the Special Counsel investigation team has begun expressing “concern” about collusion with the Russians which could undermine the Trump presidency.

Then there are the mid-term elections when control of Congress could easily pass to the Democrats.

If it does another unprecedented event in recent times could follow – the Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

President Bill Clinton was impeached but cleared of perjury and obstruction of justice and President Nixon resigned before a likely impeachment.

If such a thing were to happen the “enemies of the people” would cover such an unprecedented event with understandable relish.