The arrest of former CNN anchor and journalist Don Lemon on 29 January 2026, after he entered a Minnesota church and filmed anti-immigration enforcement protesters as they disrupted a service, is another example of the Trump administration’s strategy to silence and intimidate journalists. Jon Schleuss, President of the NewsGuild-CWA, an IFJ affiliate, tells us more about the state of press freedom in the United States and how he sees unions’ roles under autocratic regimes.
- How would you describe the state of press freedom in the USA right now?
Bad and getting worse. President Trump has directly targeted journalists in the United States in a clear effort to reduce and intimidate a free and independent press. He’s directly sued journalists and news outlets, he often makes sexist remarks to female journalists calling them “piggy” or “ugly.” Federal agents under his control have directly attacked journalists covering protests, shooting clearly identifiable journalists with pepper balls, tear gas and rubber bullets. He’s had journalists arrested under his Department of Justice. And his FBI has raided the home of journalists. And many news outlets are bending the knee, firing journalists or shifting their coverage to curry favor or reduce the potential for Trump’s ire.
- What are the most significant threats facing press freedom at the moment?
The United States has already lost tens of thousands of journalist jobs in the last decade. Private equity and hedge funds have been gobbling up newsrooms across North America, reducing staff and extracting any assets. That was the framework going into the second Trump administration. Now, the president himself is directly threatening press freedom, which is the cornerstone of American democracy as the First Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights and part of the U.S. Constitution.
- How would you compare Donald Trump’s first and second terms in terms of their impact on press freedom?
Trump’s lieutenants are more direct in their coordinated attacks against journalists and news outlets in his second administration. While he called journalists “the enemy of the people” in his first term, he has attacked journalists and news outlets more directly in his second term. Federal agents assaulting photographers and reporters, directly suing news outlets in an increasing frequency and using the federal government to investigate, intimidate and shut down news organizations. These include the Department of Justice, the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the Federal Communications Commission to name a few.
- What are the concrete consequences for journalists and the public of the federal government’s decision to eliminate funding for public broadcasters such as NPR and PBS?
It specifically means less news coverage and education programming in rural and poorer areas of the United States. Those are also predominantly Republican areas and part of Trump’s base. It means there will be less news coverage in rural parts of Alaska where radio is essential for fishing communities. It means less education programming in states with the lowest rankings in education of residents. Fundamentally it means there will be fewer broadcast journalists working to cover the United States.
- How is the NewsGuild responding to ongoing attacks on the media and journalists under the Trump administration?
We’ve organized meetings and groups of members to push back. We’ve rallied at workplaces and built community support for journalists. We’re building coalitions of different journalism organizations who typically don’t work with labor unions to stand together in this dark moment. We continue our historic organizing to support more union journalists. We’ve also directly joined lawsuits to stop the assaults against journalists covering protests. And we’ve also joined lawsuits to fight back on the closure of newsrooms like Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
- As a union representing journalists, what lessons from this period should global journalists’ unions be aware of ?
There are many other countries who have faced attacks on press freedom long before this Trump administration. So we continue to look at those examples and learn from them. As is typical with all union matters: what feels like an individual struggle is actually a collective struggle that many others have faced before. Autocrats and fascists start their assault on dismantling democracy by targeting a free and independent press. We must fight for ourselves and bring our communities to fight alongside us to continue to be the watchdogs of our democracies.
Interview by Pamela Morinière, Head of Communications Department, IFJ
Source: IFJ
