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The last time Donald Trump won the presidency, we were alarmed by the prospect that he’d file frivolous defamation suits and insult journalists from the White House podium. Those fears almost seem quaint now — the lawsuits and verbal attacks haven’t ended, but there is so much more at stake in Trump’s second term.

Since his first term ended, Trump has repeatedly called for journalists to be imprisoned and raped for not revealing their sources. Just days ago, he publicly fantasized about a mass shooting of journalists at one of his rallies. He wants to sic federal agencies from the Federal Election Commission to the Federal Communications Commission to the Department of Justice on his perceived enemies, including reporters he doesn’t like.

In his second term, Trump will make good on these anti-press threats to try to destroy any news outlet, journalist, or whistleblower who criticizes or opposes him.

Trump will almost certainly repeal protections against federal surveillance of journalists, which were prompted by his spying on them last time around (to be fair, so did his predecessor). He may even take advantage of the opening created by the case he started and the Biden administration finished — the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — to prosecute journalists directly for publishing classified information.

Republicans are already seeking to abuse anti-terrorism laws against media outlets that criticize Israel; it’s hard to imagine Trump reining them in. He’s certainly not going to lift a finger to protect Palestinian journalists from getting killed while reporting on the war. Who knows how he’ll respond if Russia or other authoritarian regimes he wants to be buddies with imprison more American journalists?

Just like his last term, Trump is likely to try to censor social media outlets and interfere with the editorial discretion of publishers. His campaign against free speech online will be even worse this time around, especially if he gives the world’s biggest free speech hypocrite, Elon Musk, a prominent role in his administration.

At the local level, Trump’s anti-press rhetoric has already emboldened everyone from governors to county-level politicians to retaliate against the media. With their leader back in the White House, Trump wannabes nationwide will feel even more empowered to harass the press — and they’ve spent Trump’s years in exile priming their base to tolerate it.

Suffice it to say, we’ve got some hard work ahead of us at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). But we’ve been here before. During the first Trump term, we fought him every step of the way, from launching the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the first comprehensive database of press freedom violations in the United States, to expanding the availability of SecureDrop to enable whistleblowers to communicate securely with journalists. And we’re now better equipped than ever to hold Trump accountable.

We’ve got an expanded advocacy team to draw the attention of both the public and policymakers to press freedom issues, whether at the local or national level. We operate a coalition that fosters strong partnerships between press rights groups across the political spectrum. Our new Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy furthers our late co-founder’s legacy by leading the fight to fix the country’s overclassification problem — something that Trump, strangely enough, actually has reason to support.

When the law isn’t enough, our digital security team steps in to educate reporters about how they can protect themselves and their sources, and our open source software tools like SecureDrop and Dangerzone help whistleblowers and journalists collaborate, and expose malfeasance, safely and confidentially.

Whatever press freedom violations we can’t prevent, we document. The Tracker is relied on by journalists and rights organizations everywhere to spot concerning trends and measure the state of press freedom in the United States. Just look at its work in 2020, the last year we had a President Trump, documenting hundreds of attacks on press rights during the civil unrest that swept the nation that year.

We’re going to need your help as the demand for our work likely grows, in both foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. If you agree that a strong Fourth Estate is essential to preserve democracy and check abuses of power, from Trump or whoever’s next, please donate today.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, D.C., Nov. 6, 2024—Donald Trump, an anti-press extremist obsessed with punishing journalists and news outlets who criticize him, has won the presidency of the United States.

The following statement can be attributed to Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF):

Trump has spent the last year on the campaign trail calling for more leak investigations, imprisoning journalists, and censoring news outlets he doesn’t like. Lawmakers and President Biden must act before it’s too late.

The Senate should immediately pass, and President Biden should sign, the bipartisan PRESS Act to stop Trump from spying on journalists, as he repeatedly did in his first term, and from throwing them in jail for refusing to reveal their sources, as he has threatened in the most disgusting terms.

Congress must make good on promises to fix dangerous and sloppily drafted mass surveillance legislation passed earlier this year that gives the U.S. government extraordinary power to spy on its own citizens.

And lawmakers must take a vocal stand against abusing anti-terrorism laws to punish free speech. It’s imperative the White House reverses its spineless position on Israel's unprecedented attacks on press freedom and pressure its ally to stop using U.S. weapons to kill journalists.

For more information on how the second Trump administration will increase government secrecy and attack journalists, how Trump tried to destroy press freedom in his first term, and the latest updates as they happen, visit FPF’s website and the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

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The election of President Donald Trump to a second term, particularly now that the Supreme Court has granted the president broad immunity for “official acts,” puts us in uncharted territory.

In terms of corrosive government secrecy, however, there are a few things that President Joe Biden, journalists and the public, and members of Congress can act on right away.

What Biden must do

Biden should work quickly to amend the executive order on classified national security information, which currently dates to the Obama administration.

The order states that “in no case shall information be classified … in order to conceal violations of law.”

The wording is misleading.

The order does not actually preclude agencies from classifying — and therefore hiding — information that documents violation of law. As government secrecy expert Steve Aftergood pointed out four years ago, it only bars agencies from classifying records with the specific intent of concealing the violation.

Agencies can still classify records showing they broke the law, and their ability to do so is backed by the courts, thanks to a 2008 ruling against the ACLU by District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The most effective and expedient way for Biden to meaningfully strengthen the executive order would be to specifically state that violations of law may not be classified at all. This change may prove to be a particularly important change in the wake of the SCOTUS immunity ruling.

Of course, it is possible that Trump could immediately rescind the order, but given its importance and convoluted subject matter, it would be unlikely his national security team would do so without having a replacement ready.

Trump also demonstrated no interest in replacing the Obama-era order during his first term. This doesn't mean he won't show more of an interest during his second term, but neither is it a given that he will, or that if he does, he would do it quickly.

In the interim, we must strengthen the tools that we have and Biden should close this loophole immediately.

What journalists and the public can do

Datasets disappeared from federal agency websites at an alarming speed at the beginning of Trump's first term. Within the first few months of his presidency alone, a staggering 39,245 datasets were removed from data.gov, which is intended to provide public access to important datasets created by the government.

The disappearance of TOXMAP is a distressing example of what may come. It was the National Library of Medicine’s mapping tool that served “as an integrated system of toxicology and environmental health information,” and that was dismantled during the first Trump administration as part of a “larger pattern of decreasing transparency of environmental data during the Trump era.”

Another warning comes from Mick Mulvaney, who, while serving as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tried to take down the bureau’s consumer complaint database. Luckily, he was ultimately unsuccessful and the database is still online — for now.

Public records were also taken down, including the White House visitor logs and press briefings from regulatory agency websites, like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Journalists and the public must assume Trump will do the same in his second term, and should immediately download and save records on websites of agencies that will likely be targets for the administration. These agencies include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Census Bureau, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to existing datasets, documents that should be proactively preserved include policy guidance, press briefings, final opinions, datasets, organizational charts, and any available information on the agency’s major information systems. For example, NOAA’s Institutional Repository is a major information system containing important NOAA records dating back to 1970.

Assume information systems like this will go offline and proactively preserve them.

What members of Congress can do

The first Trump administration banned agencies from responding to congressional requests for information when those requests did not come from full committees or subcommittees. This stalled legitimate oversight being conducted by the minority.

There’s no reason to think agencies will behave differently during a second Trump administration.

Members of Congress should use some of the remainder of the term to educate themselves and their staff on:

• the rights of individual members to request information directly from agencies, even if that request does not come from the committee chair
• how to counter agencies’ objections to providing information

Congress must also immediately pass, and Biden must sign, the PRESS Act. As Trevor Timm, executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), clearly states: “Trump has spent the last year on the campaign trail calling for more leak investigations, imprisoning journalists, and censoring news outlets he doesn’t like. Lawmakers and President Biden must act before it’s too late.”