Why US press freedoms eroded in Trump’s first year back in office
On paper, including the parchment on which the Constitution is written, the United States still has press freedoms. But in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the nation drifted further from being a world leader in press rights.
This year, the U.S. received its lowest ranking since Reporters Without Borders launched a global press rights index in 2002.
The independent non-governmental organization bases its rankings on key indicators such as lawsuits, legal protections, political context, economic fragility and journalists’ protections and safety. In a year marked by heightened First Amendment legal battles and declining conditions for reporters, the U.S. placed 57th out of 180 countries.
“Fifty-six nations rank ahead of us,” Jeffrey Robbins, a litigation partner at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr who specializes in the First Amendment, told Straight Arrow News. “Among them are states that were part of the Soviet Union, such as Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Moldova. Others that rank ahead of us are African countries, some of which have had their own issues with democracy, like Cabo Verde and Sierra Leone.”
“What’s clear is this ranking doesn’t square with Americans’ self-image as an oasis of press freedom,” Robbins said. “American journalists aren’t subjected to arbitrary detention, or criminal prosecution, or state-sponsored violence. But on the other hand, it’s objectively indisputable by other more nuanced criteria — including media independence, self-censorship and economic constraints imposed on media, including by the government — we fare very poorly, which should be shocking to Americans.”
The U.S. ranked 17th when the index began 23 years ago and fell two spots to 57th in 2025. Its decline comes as its news organizations face a series of high-stakes constitutional lawsuits filed by Trump while they sued the White House to gain traditional access to the president. In his second term, Trump also turned off the funding spigot for the public media outlets NPR and PBS, as well as their member stations, alleging their news coverage is biased.
Trump has repeatedly accused the media of being biased and unfair to him. He has described the press as “the enemy of the people” and has threatened unprecedented retaliation against news outlets that displease him.
Trump’s ‘war against the media’
While other presidents have had complicated relationships with the press, none has taken a more adversarial stance against the media — and the idea of a free press — than Trump. Kicking off his second term in the Oval Office, Trump halted hundreds of millions of dollars in funding that supported press freedoms overseas. And that was just nine hours after he took the oath of office.
“Since January 2025, the Trump administration has waged its war against the media through costly lawsuits, shutdowns of government-funded outlets, and by verbally harassing journalists,” Reporters Without Borders wrote on its website. “Another way to alienate the press is by limiting their physical presence in key government spaces, courthouses and other important locations. The restrictions are sometimes directed at a particular media outlet. Other times, they ban all members of the press.”
This year, Trump has posted at least 215 negative comments about the press on social media, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
He called one reporter “piggy” and another “ugly.” Both are women who cover the White House. He has also suggested that reporters who write unflattering stories about him could be guilty of sedition or even treason, which is punishable by death, and he has called for revoking the broadcast licenses of major television networks.
The Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, has launched at least eight probes into media outlets over their internal diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as reporting on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Carr also reopened complaints against NBC, CBS and ABC, and threatened to take action against ABC over remarks that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel made about the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The network suspended Kimmel for several days before reinstating him.
At the White House, officials excluded Associated Press reporters from the pools of journalists who cover presidential events after the news service refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” as Trump dictated. (Many other news organizations, including Straight Arrow News, also continue to refer to the Gulf by its historic name.)
Trump has filed more lawsuits against the media than any other president. He is seeking $10 billion in a defamation case against The Wall Street Journal, $10 billion from the BBC and $15 billion from The New York Times.
These cases could test the durability of the landmark First Amendment case Sullivan v. New York Times, which requires libel suits by public figures, like the president, to prove that a news outlet knowingly published false and defamatory information. Trump has said he wants to make it easier to successfully sue press organizations, which would likely require a reversal of the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in Sullivan.
“The president is directly telling news organizations what to do,” Robbins said. “They know he has the power to make their lives miserable. The net effect is to frighten news organizations to shape their coverage of the administration, for fear of economic, legal and financial retaliation if they don’t.”
Shuttering newsrooms
Financial instability was a major factor in bringing down press freedom scores across the world. More than 130 newspapers closed in the U.S. in 2025, and experts and reports suggest that when they are no longer able to hold local officials accountable, governments can run amok.
“When local newspapers aren’t there to hold governments accountable, we see costs increase due to a lack of scrutiny over local deals,” wrote Pengjie Gao and Viola D. Hank, professors of finance in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “With the loss of local news coverage also comes higher long-term borrowing costs for cities — more so than in neighboring counties.”
Even though some say shuttered newsrooms are being replaced by digital outlets, some say local newspapers cannot be replaced.
“[L]ocal newspapers play an important and unique role in proper functioning of the government and markets,” wrote Shannon Rodel for Notre Dame News.
“Bottom line is the state of journalism in the States, for reasons political, legal and economic, has turned ugly,” Robbins said. “We’re not when it comes to press freedom who we think we are. Our downward movement in these rankings is dramatic. In less than three years we’ve gone down 15 slots. You have to wonder, what will be our ranking next year? It seems like it’s on a downwards trajectory.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
