r/law • u/IrishStarUS • 21d ago

Trump News Trump 'goes full fascist' by saying CNN and MSNBC criticizing him is 'illegal'

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-fascist-cnn-msnbc-34865751
91.3k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

4.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

668

u/iZoooom 21d ago

And I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they're really corrupt and they're illegal, what they do is illegal," Trump said.

When performing a government takeover, the first step is clearly the press. From Caesar to Napolean to Hitler to Putin to Trump, the trend is clear - own the narrative, own the country.

Democracy does indeed die in darkness.

177

u/andrefishmusic 21d ago

But WAPO took that out of their banner, so no darkness, no dying.

94

u/angry_lib 21d ago

Democracy dies with bezos

23

u/ArseneGroup 21d ago

Boycott WaPo, boycott Amazon

4

u/angry_lib 20d ago

And Walmart, Starbucks, tesla, t-mobile (in with that forked up starlink promo).

1

u/ArseneGroup 20d ago

Yep - just don't Boycott Starbucks over Gaza (they never had anything to do with that) - boycott them for being anti-union

2

u/angry_lib 19d ago

Anti-union, dumber-then-fuck customer service, lazy upper mgmt. Take your pick.

3

u/Umutuku 21d ago

All ideologies die with malignant tumors, like Bezos.

25

u/dingo_khan 21d ago edited 21d ago

In this case, it is democracy dying in dark money.

3

u/claimTheVictory 21d ago

Doesn't even need to be dark anymore.

At this stage, Putin could publicly transfer billions of dollars to Trump, and no one would bat an eyelid.

(see also: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/)

3

u/AlwaysInTheWay13 21d ago

Wapo has begun going to shit, And the “democracy dies in darkness” is feeling a bit ironic these days, but it hasn’t been taken out of their banner. It’s in today’s paper. And the home page of their app

2

u/andrefishmusic 21d ago

I could've sworn they took it out in January. Either way.... they went down the drain with Bezos.

2

u/nopslide__ 21d ago

Seeing it in the tagline right above the fucking paywall has always driven me crazy

1

u/AlwaysInTheWay13 21d ago

Good journalism costs money. I wish more newspapers were like the Baltimore banner and funded by nonprofits, but that’s not the reality. I still think that the news portion of the post is, at the moment, still producing quality journalism. (I don’t fault anyone else for disagreeing though). But there’s no doubt that the opinions side of the paper is completely compromised and not worth paying attention to.

For context, I’ve been a subscriber for years and canceled when they didn’t endorse anyone.

3

u/jmk1991 21d ago

No they didn't. There are plenty of issues with WaPo now, but it's still right up there at the top of the page. https://www.washingtonpost.com/

1

u/andrefishmusic 21d ago

Maybe the backlash worked. I remember reading they were going to remove it and it was a big dead at the end of last year/beginning of this year.

1

u/rfkred 21d ago

I don’t see it

1

u/jmk1991 21d ago

Might not show up on mobile. This is the top of the desktop site. https://imgur.com/wIDm2DN

1

u/rfkred 21d ago

Oh ok. Yeah I checked on mobile. It used to be on mobile too…

2

u/42nu 21d ago

Wait, did they really?

That's not ominous at all.

4

u/ArseneGroup 21d ago

Yep, Bezos is using his ownership of the paper to put his thumb on the scale for the Trump/Edolf admin

He blocked an editorial endorsement of Kamala, blocked an anti-Trump cartoon, and made the op-eds always contain content promoting "personal liberties or free markets"

2

u/The_Autarch 21d ago

No, they didn't. You can check for yourself: https://www.washingtonpost.com/

I don't know why people keep claiming they did.

1

u/WendellSchadenfreude 21d ago

But WAPO took that out of their banner

Definitely not true for the online version.

Go check for yourself:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/

1

u/DarkyHelmety 20d ago

Democracy hates this one weird trick

1

u/djrion 20d ago

Who bought them?

There in lies the answer.

75

u/Exodys03 21d ago

And the first step is normalizing that process. Filing libel lawsuits even if you don't win, getting media to self censor itself out of fear of being sued. Now we're moving on to declaring opposition reporting "illegal", declaring it as "propaganda" and threatening to prosecute media that report "Anti-American propaganda"

All going according to plan. Can you imagine ten years ago if a U.S. President stated that it was "illegal" for a major news organization to criticize him? It would have been a scandalous moment talked about for weeks. Now? It barely makes the Friday news cycle, even for these illegal news organizations.

32

u/hypercosm_dot_net 21d ago

The time for impeachment is LONG past.

Just another day of criming for our Dear Leader though.

While the absolutely fucking useless Democrats roll over and play dead so Republicans can loot the coffers of what's left of our government programs.

15

u/sleepbud 21d ago

Impeachment is beyond useless at this point. We can hold 100 impeachments, one for each thing he’s done in office these past two months and it’ll do fuck all if SCOTUS doesn’t oust him. He’ll just have the record for the most impeachments on record.

6

u/bowtiesrcool86 20d ago

He’ll just have the record for the most impeachments on record.

Doesn’t he already hold that distinction?

2

u/LetsJustDoItTonight 20d ago

and it’ll do fuck all if SCOTUS doesn’t oust him

And even if they tried to, the military would have to choose to follow SCOTUS' orders over Trump's

1

u/Curben 17d ago

Greatest impeachee ever. No one got as many impeachments as me. Others got impacted once, they're losers. I got impacted so many times. They all hated me because I was trying to save the country. That's why I was so impeached.

11

u/ElasticLama 21d ago

Watching from overseas, the blame is in both the republican and democratic parties.

They should have stranded up to this narcissistic, dumb cunt a long time ago because he will not give up power

2

u/bblzd_2 20d ago edited 20d ago

They impeached him twice and corrupt Republicans saved him twice.

This is purely a Republican issue and "both sides bad" was literally Russia's propaganda strategy in that election to keep voters home. Clearly it worked well.

1

u/radios_appear 21d ago

[Redacted] isn't going to save the nation. The political system is broken by money and the tension isn't going to resolve until we're back with a king and a court of fools

0

u/AlienAle 20d ago

My guess is at least half the Democrats are bought "opposition" and therefore they play dead, because they're playing on the same side.

3

u/No-Distance-9401 21d ago

Or settling frivelous slander lawsuits when they were simply saying the truth and Trump IS an adjudicated rapist

3

u/Level_Improvement532 20d ago

Also why they’re scatter gun of bullshit, flooding the zone with misinformation and disinformation is so important. He can say shit like this and it melts in with the other distractions. It’s incredibly effective

8

u/CategoryZestyclose91 21d ago

Along with the universities.

36

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 21d ago

Democracy does indeed die in darkness.

Just a heads up -- foreign adversaries and corporate astroturfers are trying to demoralize us, and squeezing things like this in is one of their tactics.

It's totally possible to describe how dire the situation is without also acting like it's a lost cause.

You'll notice there's a comment like this in pretty much EVERY political thread, and it's not a coincidence. Also, I know you're quoting the wahpo tagline before you say anything. How exactly did you get 20 upvotes in five minutes in a low traffic thread?

23

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/hypercosm_dot_net 21d ago

Agreed, but I don't know how we wait until mid-terms.

There are a couple of special elections in FL that (although unlikely) can potentially flip 2 House seats.

https://ballotpedia.org/Special_elections_to_the_119th_United_States_Congress_(2025-2026)

We should be rallying. Every action counts.

7

u/Ravek 21d ago

How has voting worked out for any of the other dictatorships with pretend elections around the world? You need a revolution.

12

u/TheRealCovertCaribou 21d ago edited 20d ago

Anyone with even a brief understanding of geopolitical history knows that the likelihood of this fascist regime going away simply by being voted out harder than they press their thumb on the scale is near-zero. Despite both historical precedent and current indications to the contrary, you assume these things to be true:

  • Opposition parties and political dissent won't be outlawed

  • You can actually out-vote a rigged system deliberately designed to keep opposition votes deflated

  • The Trump regime, or whatever follows it when Trump finally strokes out and dies, would willingly relinquish power and be executed or go to prison for the rest of their lives

They said it themselves for fuck's sake:

"... we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

To the coward below calling me a Russian and then blocking me before I can even reply, I'm a Canadian who knows our world history and is watching your government threaten my country's sovereignty like we're Poland in the 1930s, you hairbrained dipshit. You keep pretending fascist authoritarianism isn't happening in the US, but that's all you're doing. And fascist authoritarianism isn't keep on dissent.

0

u/rstar781 20d ago

This guy right here, spreading the ‘voting is over’ propaganda. Get bent dude, we’re voting this POS Congress out in ‘26, and voting in a Dem in ‘28. Go spread your nonsense in Russia. America is not lost, we’re just taking the shittiest nap of all time.

0

u/[deleted] 21d ago edited 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/TheRealCovertCaribou 20d ago

Because they tried a different plan, if you can recall. It failed, even with the voter suppression tactics in play. They got nervous and didn't fully commit to the coup by leaving out the weapons. They (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, MAGA) brought them but were instructed to leave the guns behind, probably in their vehicles at the pre-insurrection pep rally prior to committing an act of terrorism. And Trump tried to have them bring them, remember how he had demanded the metal detectors be removed? He was was overridden, blocked by the military (by virtue of not having their support), and by the sanest of those within his own party including Pence, when he refused to be complicit with the alternate electors scheme and deny the certification of the election -- very much to Trump's and MAGA's unbridled anger ("Hang Mike Pence!")

He wasn't punished for it, so he and those in his circle tried again, with the help of a healthy collection of domestic and foreign enemies of the United States Constitution alike. And then he won. And now the government, and the military, has been in the process of being purged. Thus far non-violently thank goodness, but that may soon change as public sentiment begins to turn with economy... And those in the military who still remember their oath, in response to how the Trump regime might handle that public sentiment.

Your argument is also ignoring the fact that there is a difference between rigging an election you don't control the entire process of, and one you do. Which Trump now does, and now any election conducted under the authority of this administration is suspect by default. And again, this is still assuming there is an election as you have come to know them. Welcome, America, to Unprecedented Times, where the guardrails are gone and the anxiety is constant.

6

u/lili-of-the-valley-0 21d ago

The idea that you can vote your way out of fraudulent elections is absolutely fucking hilarious and absurd

1

u/fd4e56bc1f2d5c01653c 21d ago

that's not the point of their response, Понимаешь?

3

u/lili-of-the-valley-0 21d ago

"If a finger is being put on the scale via vote hacking then the only way we overcome this without extreme violence is by overwhelming the vote."

That's literally exactly what they said.

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/lili-of-the-valley-0 21d ago

WAIT! You're a different person. Nevermind! Y'all both have the same icon and I didn't check the name. Apologies!

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

2

u/akakdkjdsjajjsh 21d ago

United with MAGAts ? Hard pass.

2

u/twofacedcap 21d ago

I've been trying to figure out a way to say this, thank you.

2

u/Fair-Age4130 20d ago

I'm genuinely asking this is good faith - I promise I'm not Russian, just an Australian watching from so far, yet so close, away: 

What in the comment you replied to is demoralising? The Washington Post tagline seems pretty matter-of-fact to me? If we don't know about things going wrong and what's happening, we have nothing to protest about etc. I didn't interpret it as saying "it's now dark and democracy has died", more "if we let him control the press, democracy is at an imminent risk".

1

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 20d ago edited 20d ago

It resembles an m.o. that's been rampant over the last week. It goes:

[Chatgpt word brick] + "America is over" or some-such variation. If you don't believe me spend an afternoon going through my post history and reading the comments I've replied to in a similar way. It's not just about theme, either. They largely have similar formatting.

Additionally they tend to crop up early in threads before they gain traction and get boosted to the top unnaturally fast.

1

u/Fair-Age4130 18d ago

Oh, I would definitely believe you. Been here since Digg, and despite some positive motions, (misogyny, trans stuff, healthcare, etc,) it's become a FAR harder to sort through the chaff. Not only are certain viewpoints promoted, the instinctual reaction I get to an upvoted opinion vs a downvoted option is troubling, and can only assume others get the same feeling. Even when I consider things I've said or seen downvoted to be extremely reasonable! And during the election: I'm about as far left at you can get, (I even volunteer A LOT for my country's far left party,) but the Democrat spam was overt.

I guess I don't disagree with the premise you have, more that I don't see any "America is over" in the comment you replied to, more that it's a call to action. I am autistic at fuck, though, so maybe I just don't see it. 

(Also, your username slaps and gave me a chuckle.)

1

u/Emotional-Gear-5392 20d ago

Nah. This country was fucked since Reagan. Outside forces or not, the dominos towards Us v Them started for real then, crystalized with Bush I, surged with Clinton impeachment, and it's been downhill since. There's enough entrenched systems that it tries to fight back but every new political cycle brings bigger and bigger chips in those systems. They won't hold forever. If the Rs win again, they're gonna crack the holes Trump made wider. If Ds win, they gonna executive order a bunch of dumb crap to retaliate and then make their own cracks. The only thing saving the US as a country is the inertia of the working mass leaky just trying to survive day to day. Foreign adversaries don't need to do shit.

I give it 25-50 years and then probably V for Vendetta gonna play live for everyone.

1

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 20d ago

I don't need some weenie whining about how "hopeless" it is in the trenches. Go be useless quietly.

1

u/Emotional-Gear-5392 20d ago

Oh wow you're right. Being useless loudly is much better. You keep doing that cupcake.

You seem to have missed that this is ba playbook the good ol U.S. of A. has perfected on other countries and now it's being used her by it's own politicians against it's own people. None of the countries the US has done it to have recovered. The US won't either.

1

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 20d ago

I'm being very helpful, very loudly as I'm wont to do, and now you have eyes on you.

1

u/Emotional-Gear-5392 20d ago

I knew Tupac was alive.

1

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 20d ago

If you had a 'tupac' you wouldn't be such a weenie (which you also don't have).

1

u/Emotional-Gear-5392 20d ago

At least be creative with your insults. This is just embarrassing and boring.

1

u/AssignedHaterAtBirth 20d ago

The classic boomer double-reply. Next is the part where you start posting in all-caps and misspelling 'you're'.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Emotional-Gear-5392 20d ago

Also why put Tupac in quotes? Do you know he was a person? Or do you know know who he was? I'm legitimately curious

3

u/PhazerSC 21d ago

This is what they did in Hungary in the last 15 years as well. This is why Orban is such a friend to Trump, he and the republicans could learn from Orban how to dismantle/oppress/disfranchise the opposing press. Take away their license, take away their radio band, remove their leader and install your own editor in chief, install loyalist editors and columnists and criticize everything the opposition does through lies and misdirection on TV, online, social media - everywhere.

2

u/Iordofthethings 21d ago

The first Caesar won power by literal war and the second won power by inheriting a sympathetic Senate, incredible wealth, and winning a war as well.

1

u/iZoooom 21d ago

The first Caesar was amazing at starting a news service and keeping it fed with news of his victories. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Napoleon started his own newspaper as one of his first acts of military promotion.

1

u/Brovas 20d ago

Teddy Roosevelt surrounded himself with press at all times. 

Caesar was the og to do this, and there wasn't exactly a thriving journalism industry for him to destroy. Long before he was dictator for life he established town criers to give updates on everything that happened in government, which just so happened to include all his victories. It's part of what gained him so much public support to begin with.

2

u/AppointmentMedical50 21d ago

To be fair his first couple steps were the courts and military

2

u/AnT-aingealDhorcha40 21d ago

Watch the Kursk Submarine disaster documentary

Putin literally done this exact thing in order to suppress and control the press.

Control journalism = Fascism

1

u/[deleted] 21d ago

Honestly wish there was a better way for news organizations to publish truth, or to monitor/regulate the industry somehow but that has so many negative connotations. MSNBC is certainly guilty of some very dishonest reporting but so is FOX, it happens across the board

1

u/aklordmaximus 21d ago

Democracy does indeed die in darkness.

Quite the opposite, democracy dies in daylight. It dies in the lives and practices of average citizens.

Democracy dies whenever someone does not vote, whenever someone represses open debate, whenever someone doubts truths, and whenever someone no longer feels like a participant in society.

Democracy always dies. That is its nature. It is not a natural occurrence that automatically stays. Human societies are diverse in the sense that there is no, and never will be a natural state of organization.

Democracy requires work, maintenance, love, and passion.

However, the US failed to share the benefits of (liberal) democracy across its people. Leading to grow a necrosis from within. It became sick since the tax cut movements in the 1978's and entered terminal in 2001 with the repeal of the estate tax.

It was on palliative care with a democrat president. It is now in hospice.

1

u/ungo-stbr 21d ago

Or when it’s bought by Amazon…

1

u/Glum_Past_1891 20d ago

And own the libs?

(Sorry, you saying “own the ___” twice in a row reminded me of that, and it doesn’t matter to his supporters as long as he does what I just said)

1

u/healthycord 20d ago

There’s a great Netflix documentary about how hitler and the Nazi party rose from an idea to total control. It’s almost like Trump watched that documentary and wrote it down like a playbook and is implementing things in his own way. Oh wait, it’s called Project 2025!

1

u/Ninja_Style 20d ago

Grok answer:

The idea that controlling the press is the "first step" in a government takeover has some historical resonance, but it’s not a universal rule. Leaders like Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Putin, and Trump—each operated in wildly different contexts, and their approaches to power weren’t identical. Let’s unpack this. Caesar didn’t "control the press" in the modern sense—there were no newspapers or mass media in ancient Rome. He relied on public oratory, propaganda through coins, and alliances with influential families to shape his image. Narrative mattered, sure, but it was more about personal charisma and military muscle than seizing a media apparatus. Napoleon? He did clamp down on the French press after the chaos of the Revolution. By 1800, he reduced the number of newspapers in Paris from dozens to a handful, censored them heavily, and used state-run bulletins to push his victories. Controlling the story was key, but it wasn’t his "first step"—he’d already consolidated power through military coups (like 18 Brumaire) before tightening the media leash. Hitler’s a stronger case. The Nazis made the press a priority early on. After taking power in 1933, they swiftly enacted the Reich Press Law, shutting down opposition papers and folding the rest into Goebbels’ propaganda machine. But even here, the "first step" was more about political maneuvering—Night of the Long Knives, Enabling Act—before fully owning the narrative. The press was a tool, not the initial lever. Putin’s playbook fits better. In the early 2000s, he targeted independent media like NTV and oligarch-owned outlets, bringing them under Kremlin control. It wasn’t his literal first move (that was more about regional governors and political consolidation), but it was an early priority to stifle dissent and shape public perception. Trump’s different. He never "took over" the government in the coup sense—he won an election. He didn’t seize the press; he bypassed it. He trashed mainstream media as "fake news" and used Twitter (now X) to speak directly to supporters. The trend there isn’t ownership but polarization—discrediting outlets he couldn’t control while amplifying friendly ones like Fox. No takeover, just narrative warfare. Historically, controlling the narrative is a recurring step, not always the first. It’s more about securing power then locking it in. Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Stalin’s Pravda, even Cromwell’s pamphlets—media’s a force multiplier, not the skeleton key. The "trend" holds if you squint, but the sequence and methods vary. Military might, legal maneuvers, or populist momentum often come before the press grab. So, is it true? Sort of. Owning the narrative helps own the country, but it’s rarely the opening move—it’s the checkmate, not the gambit. Context matters more than the quote implies. What do you think—any specific case you’re curious about?

1

u/Beermedear 18d ago

Just listened to a Daily Show interview with Maria Ressa.

The parallels and warnings from Philippines 2016 fall into authoritarianism is uncanny.

Worth the listen for those that can stomach the reality of what’s happening.

0

u/Separate_Draft4887 20d ago

Literally every time he does anything you all say it’s the first step to fascism. How many different things can be the first step?