Trump targets news media, punishing critical coverage of his second term

May 15, 2026 | Trump calls journalists’ reporting on Iran war ‘treasonous’

April 6, 2026 | Trump says news outlet must identify source or ‘go to jail’

May 15, 2026 | Trump calls journalists’ reporting on Iran war ‘treasonous’

President Donald Trump accused David Sanger — a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times — and others of treason for their coverage of the Iran war during a press gaggle on Air Force One on May 15, 2026.

Trump, who was returning from a series of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, held an informal press gaggle on the plane. In footage posted by Forbes, Sanger is heard asking the president what could be gained by resuming a bombing campaign against Iran.

“I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you, write it incorrectly. You’re a fake guy and guys like you write about it incorrectly,” Trump responds. “We’ve had a total victory except by people like you that don’t write the truth. You know, you should write … I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write. But you and The New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst.”

As another journalist begins to ask a question, Trump turns back to Sanger, addressing him as David, and says that the reporter just writes what his editors tell him to, that he should be ashamed and that the reporting amounts to treason.

Sanger defended his reporting and the importance of the new media generally during an appearance on CNN later that day.

“We all know what this is about: It’s an effort to intimidate news organizations into not doing the reporting,” Sanger told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “The president seems to conflate news he doesn’t want to hear with treason, and that’s not the case.”

In a statement posted to social media, Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander defended the newspaper’s coverage.

“Reporting isn’t treason. It’s foundational to a free press and the work that America’s founders wrote the First Amendment to protect,” he said. “That includes making clear when the claims of government officials and the reality of their actions don’t line up.”

The incident came just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had complained in April to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about leaks concerning the Iran war, and in one meeting passed a stack of news articles to Blanche with a sticky note that read “treason.”

The newspaper also revealed that it and other news outlets were issued subpoenas earlier this year as part of ongoing leak investigations, and that Blanche had vowed to secure such legal orders for the records of journalists working on sensitive national security stories.

April 6, 2026 | Trump says news outlet must identify source or ‘go to jail’

President Donald Trump vowed to investigate the source behind a leak concerning the downing of a U.S. fighter jet by Iran during a news conference on April 6, 2026, adding that he would not hesitate to take action against the media outlet that published the information.

The F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran April 3, and while the pilot was quickly rescued, the weapons systems officer could not be immediately located, triggering a frantic two-day search to find him before Iranian forces did. The incidents were covered by multiple national and international newsrooms.

Trump asserted that news reporting on the incident endangered the airman and others, and that the administration would approach the unnamed outlet that had published it as part of ongoing efforts to identify the leaker, The New York Times reported.

“We’re going to go to the media company that released it,” Trump said, “and we’re going to say, ‘National security — give it up or go to jail.’ And we know who, and you know who, we’re talking about.”

The White House did not clarify which news outlet the president was referring to, the Times reported.

Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times he was not aware of another instance of a president issuing such a threat.

“During times of armed conflict in a democracy,” Rottman said in a statement, “it is essential that the press be able to gather and report information in the public interest and thus provide an independent check on the official government narrative.”