As of Feb. 25, 2025, President Trump has declared himself a dictator. An administration already implementing authoritarian strategies used by modern demagogues has just checked a crucial box—a decisive move to censor the press.
In a press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Trump’s officials would control the press pool that covers the sitting president. The point of pool reporters is to disseminate the information from briefings, Q&As, photo ops, and other presidential appearances where there is limited space for correspondents. Some such are the Oval Office and Air Force One.
The White House Correspondents Association comprised of journalists from publications with both left and right political leanings, has been coordinating coverage of the sitting president’s day-to-day activities for the last century. The organization considers outlets’ different resources to ensure that the most information is distributed as widely and efficiently as possible.
This move might have the most significant impact on press freedom so far. In fact, CIVICUS, a research tool used internationally by civil organizations to identify threats of authoritarianism, has just put the U.S. on its watchlist for “gross abuses of executive power.” In a press release, they cited the hijacking of the pool as one of the primary warning signs.
Leavitt said the move to restrict the pool was because “a select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly over the privilege of press access at the White House.”
She explained that with this change, Trump’s administration is modernizing the press pool, giving “power back to the people,” and “welcoming new voices.”
There are legitimate concerns about the monopolization of media outlets. Six multinational corporations own the majority of media outlets.The issue is that even if we ignore the fact that Trump has consistently shown loyalty to large corporations and private interests, it’s clear his priorities lie elsewhere. His administration has a history of attacking reporters who don’t show loyalty to the president. Even when such loyalty would defeat the purpose of journalists as political watchdogs. Trump has criticized mainstream news outlets, making frequent references to “fake news” and “liberal bias.” He even revoked CNN journalist Jim Acosta’s press credentials in 2018 and blocked certain outlets and journalists from White House press conferences and reduced the number of press conferences. Additionally, Trump has also been accused of inciting violence against the press in several comments.
His administration will not wield this unconstitutional power to protect ethical journalism, they’ve already made an enemy of it.
Since his inauguration, Trump has done plenty more to signify a regime change. Trump and his new Department of Government Efficiency have made broad, unprecedented reforms, raising red flags that the United States truly is under the control of an authoritarian regime.
In December, Trump joked he’d be a dictator “only on day one.” He certainly was. However, he didn’t stop after his first day in office. We’ve seen consistent headlines since, from Trump portraying himself as a king in a social media post to his attempt to deport non-citizen protestors for “hostile attitudes” towards the U.S.
Control of the press pool was a clear sign that he had every intention of creating a regime in the image of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and Turkeys’ Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, among several other modern authoritarian demagogues.
The most successful dictators of the 21st century know that extreme violence and overt fear tactics are not well received by their citizens or internationally. They adapt their strategies for gaining and maintaining power in the modern world, a time of globalization and digital communication. These strategies involve enacting rapid reforms, disregarding the law, requiring outlandish loyalty tests, and making bold claims and addresses to the people. These figures use manipulation and cultivate personality cults. This all may sound familiar.
Increasingly frequent and more severe red flags have marked our country’s path to this point, leaving us teetering on the edge authoritarianism. We don’t want to realize one day that our government resembles that of Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Kazakhstan, or Venezuela. To find that we’ve lost the allies whom we can credit for much of our status, influence, and prosperity.
We don’t want to fail, as many countries have before us, to see our leader for what he is.