What did Donald Trump do today?

He alternated between suing the media, threatening them with violence, and saying he'd tattle on them.

 

Late last night, Trump filed a defamation and libel suit against the New York Times, the book publisher Penguin Randomhouse, and several individuals for $15 billion over their coverage of him during the 2024 election. In essence, Trump's theory of the case is that by reporting unflattering things about him, the defendants not only negatively impacted his chances in the election, but hurt his personal brand, which he claims is worth $100 billion.

Of course, it is not defamation simply to report things that the subject doesn't like—or to endorse one presidential candidate over another, which is another thing Trump claims was somehow defamatory, in spite of it being standard practice going back at least as far as 1860. Reaction from legal scholars to the filing, which is riddled with legal errors, has not been kind. 

Trump has sued several other media companies since returning to office, with the more or less explicit goal of forcing them to accept a token settlement in exchange for influence over their coverage. ABC and CBS have both accepted such settlements to shield their parent companies from Trump actively working against their interests. But others, like the Wall Street Journal—which is owned by the conservative news tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and who can fight on Trump's turf—have called his bluff.

This morning, Trump continued to be in a combative mood with reporters. He snapped at an Australian journalist and accused him of "hurting Australia" by asking a question about the conflict of interest between his businesses and his presidency, and promised to tell on the reporter to the Prime Minister of Australia.

JOHN LYONS: But is it appropriate, President Trump, that a president in office should be engaged in so much business activity?

TRUMP: Well, I'm really not, my kids are running the business.

LYONS: But you are also—

TRUMP: Where are you from?

LYONS: I'm from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

TRUMP: Oh, all right. You're hurting Australia, right—right. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now. And they want to get along with me. You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I'm going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone. Jonathan? [To Lyons] You can set a nicer tone. Quiet!

He then outright threatened ABC reporter Jonathan Karl's job and hinted at the kind of stochastic violence he's threatened against his enemies before.

KARL: What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she's going to go after hate speech? A lot of your allies say hate speech is free speech.

TRUMP: We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It's hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they'll come after ABC. Well ABC paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech. Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, so maybe they'll have to go after you. …You should take your beautiful wife tonight and have dinner. You won't be shot. You won't be accosted. You won't even be looked at incorrectly by anybody.

It is not a crime in either the United States or Australia to ask the president a question about his conflicts of interest—or to look at him "incorrectly."

Why does this matter?

• There's no good reason for a president to be this afraid of a free press. 

• Hinting that something bad will happen to a critic (or his "beautiful wife") is what thugs in bad mob movies do.

• Most children grow out of tattletale stuff by about the third grade.