Inside Trump’s decade-long war on the press: 75,000 posts, 3,500 direct attacks

I think the sustained pattern of this rhetoric reveals that it is very much intentional. It is not bluster; it is not a personality trait. It is deliberate. It is very much at the cost of the strength of our social fabric and our shared reality.”

Stephanie Sugars, senior reporter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at the Freedom of the Press Foundation

In February 2017, then-President Donald Trump posted on Twitter, calling the press “the enemy of the American people” and naming outlets such as CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Hours later, he deleted and reposted the statement, this time adding more news organizations.       

It was not an isolated incident. From his 2016 presidential campaign to his current term, Trump has repeatedly attacked journalists and media outlets at public events and on social media.  

Stephanie Sugars, senior reporter for the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, has spent years cataloguing these posts during his campaigns and presidential terms. Her work, compiled in a public database, details more than 3,500 Trump posts on Twitter (now X) and Truth Social since 2015, targeting the press. The catalogue tags the posts by target — individual journalists, specific news outlets or “the media” — and type of attack.

Sugars estimates she has reviewed some 75,000 posts across both platforms. Working roughly 900 hours between November 2024 and June of this year to update the database with a backlog of posts that hadn’t been tracked when President Biden was in office.

E&P spoke with Sugars about the origins of the project and what her findings reveal about Trump’s relationship with the press.

Sugars has spent nearly a decade tracking and cataloguing Trump’s posts on Twitter (now X) and Truth Social because she said, “In aggregate, they tell a clear story about Trump, his tactics and what it means for the press.”

E&P: You’ve just marked 10 years of tracking Trump’s online attacks on the media. How did this all start, and why did you think it was worth keeping up for so long?

Sugars: In February 2017, when he first used “enemy of the people” in a pair of posts, I was working as a contractor at the Committee to Protect Journalists on the launch of the U.S Press Freedom Tracker. We didn’t yet know exactly what the Tracker would include, so I kept a separate spreadsheet just of the social media posts. It didn't seem to fit in the main Tracker, so it remained something on the side.

When I left CPJ, I continued the work on my own because I thought it was a valuable resource. It’s not that each individual post is important; it’s that, in aggregate, they tell a clear story about Trump, his tactics and what it means for the press.

President Trump began during his candidacy to post about “fake news” and calling the press the “enemy of the people.”

E&P: Trump has made many anti-press comments at rallies, in interviews and on television. Why did you decide to focus on his social media activity?

Sugars: The difficulty of parsing intentionality is exactly why we don’t document things he says in rallies or press events for this database. This is truly what he is actively choosing to type out and post online on his massive platforms. A court has already determined that his posts are to be perceived by the public — and under the law — as official statements from the Office of the President.

E&P: Given the sheer volume of posts you’ve reviewed, how do you decide what meets your threshold for inclusion? And just as importantly, what gets left out?

Sugars: I look at whether a post falls into our general categories: accusation of false reporting, calls for boycotts or firings, generalized denigration of the media, direct insults of individuals or outlets, mentions of leaks and leakers, claims of media bias and direct threats. We capture the whole spectrum so others can interrogate the details and see patterns over time.

That said, there are also clear exclusions. For example, if Trump simply reposts something from someone else … without adding any commentary of his own, I don’t include it, even if the original post contains an attack on the media. The reasoning is that it’s such a low-effort action, and without his direct words, it’s harder to determine intentionality.

According to Sugars, Trump’s main target is often Fox News. As a candidate, he’s most likely to target conservative outlets that don’t show loyalty.

E&P: After 10 years of tracking, what patterns stand out the most and have any of them surprised you?

Sugars: One surprising thing — his main target is often Fox News. As a candidate, he’s most likely to target conservative outlets that don’t show loyalty. When he’s in office, he generally lays off conservative outlets and focuses on the media as a whole.

E&P: Has that changed in his current term?

Sugars: He’s calling the media “fake news” less often, but he’s attacking individual journalists more. Those singled out frequently report increased harassment and intimidation. When he attacks the media as a whole, the ripple effect is broader, shaping how his supporters perceive journalism and a shared reality.

E&P: You’ve said some of his recent posts are especially troubling. What’s happening now that raises red flags for you?

Sugars: I’m concerned by the way he’s celebrating what could be categorized as victories against outlets — the ABC and CBS settlements and the shuttering of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He said in a post that various news outlets were “on notice,” which carries weight now that he has obtained $32 million in settlement payments from CBS and ABC.

In a 7-22-25 post, President Trump celebrated what he categorized as victories against outlets — the ABC and CBS settlements and putting other outlets “on notice.”

E&P: Who’s using this dataset, and for what purposes?

Sugars: In my dreams, it would be the general public, but it’s mostly other press freedom groups, journalists and attorneys. I’ve spoken to lawyers who are working for outlets interested in how often they’ve been targeted and in getting a list of those posts.

E&P: After spending so much time immersed in this material, what’s the biggest takeaway you want the public to understand?

Sugars:  I want people to walk away knowing, basically seeing, this as a warning. I think the sustained pattern of this rhetoric reveals that it is very much intentional. It is not bluster; it is not a personality trait. It is deliberate. It is very much at the cost of the strength of our social fabric and our shared reality. Now, on both sides of the political spectrum, there is widespread distrust of the news media and also a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to be a journalist and what the work entails. It is this sort of rhetoric that normalizes behaviors that would otherwise be seen as abhorrent. That makes me fearful for the future of our democracy in a very real way.

Diane Sylvester is an award-winning 30-year multimedia news veteran. She works as a reporter, editor and newsroom strategist. She can be reached at diane.povcreative@gmail.com.