Donald Trump has spent a decade treating the press as an oppositional force to be delegitimized. His attacks used to have the swagger of a man who believed he was comfortably in command. Now his frantic Truth Social posts have the pitch of a man who suspects he might be losing — and the White House currently has no press secretary to clean up after him.
With just nine weeks remaining in a midterm election cycle threatening to hand a severe rebuke to the White House, Trump’s grip on the national narrative is slipping. His public approval hovers near a dismal 38% — historic lows reminiscent of the political wipeouts faced by George W. Bush in 2006. Facing the reality of a looming lame-duck status and an increasingly skeptical public, the administration has dropped any remaining pretense of respecting democratic norms around a free press, exposing an administration terrified of accountability.
