Trump's Trials - Subpoenas, lawsuits, and Trump's increasingly hostile relationship with the press

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

Ahead of Friday night's rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner, NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith and media correspondent David Folkenflik discuss Trump’s ever-shifting relationship with the press.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Here's the latest from NPR. I'm Debbie Elliott in Washington. The annual White House correspondence dinner is happening again tonight after a gunman attacked the original event in late April. The dinner is a Washington tradition. to bring the most powerful people in government together with the journalists who scrutinize their work.

NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith and media correspondent David Fulkenflick. Join me now to discuss Trump's relationship with the press. Hello to both of you. Hello. Hey there. So, Tam, what do we expect from the dinner tonight? You know, there were a lot of journalists who had a lot of concerns about what the president might say at the first dinner when it happened in April. but before Trump could even begin his speech, shots were fired outside of the ballroom and everyone took cover.

Later that night, Trump talked about what he had been planning to say. I was all set to really rip it. And I said to my people, this would be the most inappropriate speech ever made if I said. So I have to save it. I don't know if I could ever be as rough as I was going to be tonight. I think I'm going to be probably very nice. I'll be very boring the next time. I'm not expecting him to be very boring or particularly nice tonight. Less than 48 hours after that magnanimous moment, he was attacking CBS's Nora O'Donnell and the press more broadly because she asked a question he didn't like, saying, quote, you're horrible people, horrible people.

So, David, we just heard Trump say he plans to go off on the press. A journalist have this natural tension with the people that they cover. But this is this is. This is. bigger than that, right? What has he been doing? Well, I think it's worth reminding folks that this is a president who has used all kinds of levers available to him, but not employed by almost any of his predecessors in this way to this degree and as comprehensively. He's used regulatory agencies. He's used the Justice Department. He's pursued matters in civil courts as a private citizens to punish the press for reporting on stories he doesn't like. And let me give you a clear example of what I mean. one that, as the kids once said, you know, was ripped from the headlines. The New York Times earlier this month wrote a story about security concerns within the U.S.

government, particularly the Secret Service, about the new Air Force One aircraft that was given to the president by the Qatari government. Trump didn't like that reporting. And reporters got knocks on their doors from FBI agents delivering subpoenas. They later found out the government was going after their telephone records and some of their relatives' telephone records. I was in a court hearing yesterday. It was dramatic. A federal judge railed against the government's legal arguments, railed against the professionalism of senior lawyers, at least one of whom the lead attorney had been with the Justice Department for years and suggesting that the Department of Justice had misled the court. The Department of Justice ultimately dropped the subpoenas after the judge said he would otherwise quash them. And the judge made clear he was inclined to seek legal sanctions against some of the government's lawyers for their behavior in court. And just this afternoon, President Trump defended the subpoenas. He said it's about national security. And he said there's a long way to go in that case. So this might not be over. It might not be over. So, Tim, you covered Trump's first administration. How does this moment compared to the relationship back at that time?

You know, in the first administration, Trump referred to the media as fake news and complained about coverage that he didn't like. But he didn't take a lot of action. In the second term, He has sued news organizations for coverage he doesn't like, including ABC, CBS, the New York Times, BBC, and the Wall Street Journal. He removed the Associated Press from the pool of reporters to get close access to him over an editorial decision. He has called female reporters dumb and piggy and suggested that CNN's Caitlin Collins should smile. And of course, he oversaw the defunding of NPR and PBS. Combined, it has made a more hostile relationship. It is upended norms dating back generations that govern how the president and the press interact. What do we know about Trump's ultimate goal here in attacking the press?

Well, I'm going to go back to something that he said in 2016 to longtime CBS News correspondent Leslie Stahl. She said they weren't on camera, but she said that she asked him why he was constantly attacking the press. And she quoted him as saying, quote, I do it to you all to demean you so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you. And certainly we've gotten to a point in this country where trust in the institution of the press is at an all-time low. And the president and his White House have worked very hard to make sure that if the president is answering questions, he's not just surrounded by mainstream journalists, but also by influencers from far-right organizations like, the streaming service of Mike Lindell, the election denier, My Pillow Guy. David, given all of this, why even have this formal dinner tonight to celebrate the free press with a president who has worked so aggressively to undermine what we do? Well, obviously, there's a human element, of course, after you have, you know, the attempted gunmen show up trying to hurt the president, hurt others.

at the dinner, you can understand setting out and saying, hey, maybe we want to come back and recreate this. But look, there'll be people from NPR at this dinner, and I'm not speaking on behalf of our network. As a media critic and as a reporter who has covered politics in Washington sometime, I would say the cognitive dissonance of what we're thinking about with that event is so loud now that it is deafening. I don't think this event makes any sense. You have the guest of honor being a president who has used, as I mentioned, all these levers against the institutions and the people who are being honored at these dinner. You know, one of the reporters subpoenaed by the Times, although that subpoena has been dropped, is being honored with an award at this dinner. The president has sued some of the news organizations that are the major outlets present and being honored at this dinner.

You know, it has been over the course of its history at the White House Correspondents Dinner a night to rub shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world, time to, work sources, a time in addition to raise money for scholarships, and a time ostensibly to honor the First Amendment. But they are bringing in the person, just to be clear, who is posed in some ways the most hostility and the most animus to the press we've seen in modern political life. And that's problematic. And that is problematic. NPR's media correspondent David Flokinflick and senior political correspondent Tamara Keith. Thanks to both of you. You're welcome. You bet. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast,

where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR. Thank you.