President Donald Trump's "high and petty" ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House is already poised to blow up in his face, former federal prosecutor Harry Litman wrote for his Talking Feds Substack on Tuesday.
Already, he said, the press is fighting back in ways that are only going to make Trump's life worse.
First of all, there was the lawsuit the three outlets filed. But more than that, "the rest of the press pool refused to fill their slots, suspending a shared arrangement that has put an independent camera on every president since Eisenhower," wrote Litman, meaning Trump had no proper recording for his official events in the past day. "It was a collective flexing of muscle, and twenty months of Trump 2.0 have taught us that this—institutions acting together, refusing to be picked off one at a time—is exactly the right way to push back against a tyrant."
This kind of thing, he said, "hit Trump where it hurts him most, cutting off the oxygen of the public’s attention to his every move." Trump thrives on press attention, and uses it to control the narrative — essential during a period where voters are turning on him over the economy.
If Trump doesn't back down quickly, wrote Litman, "the collective action figures to hasten the collapse of Trump’s order even faster than the lawsuit will. And if the courts do not quickly reverse him, he will likely find a way to declare victory and undo it himself. We can take heart in that, and in the show of vigor by the press and the courts, which have been among the more stalwart institutions resisting Trump’s authoritarian moves throughout this presidency."
Ultimately, Litman concluded, "Thanks largely to the courts and the collective action of the media, we are not yet at the point where everything comes apart; and I believe we will not get there ... But a democracy can be eroded and pushed toward authoritarianism, with current and lasting consequences." So Trump needs to feel the consequences of his move, and fast.