President Trump said Friday that news reporters who cover his administration negatively have broken the law, a significant broadening of his attacks on journalists and their First Amendment right to critique the government.
A day after asserting that broadcasters should potentially lose their licenses over negative news coverage of him, Mr. Trump escalated his condemnations of the press, suggesting reporters were lawbreakers.
“They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad,” he said, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office. “See, I think that’s really illegal.”
Mr. Trump did not cite a specific law he said he believed had been violated. It remained unclear Friday why Mr. Trump believed negative news coverage, which every president has faced and is protected by the Constitution, would be “really illegal.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
The president and Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission chair, have escalated their threats to punish broadcasters since ABC suspended the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after pressure from Mr. Carr over some of Mr. Kimmel’s comments on Monday’s show related to the assassination of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
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