When NPR sued Donald Trump Tuesday, it had an easy argument to go with. Normally, in First Amendment retaliation cases against the government, you have to pull together a bunch of disparate strands to prove the retaliatory intent of the actions. But as NPR noted in its filing, and as Justice Scalia once wrote about obvious constitutional violations: “this wolf comes as a wolf.”
Trump’s executive order cutting public media funding doesn’t even pretend to hide its retaliatory nature — it literally calls NPR and PBS “biased media” in the title.
Republicans have been gunning for public media for decades, but historically, every time Congress tries to cut funding, outcry from their constituents is so overwhelming that nothing ever happens. It turns out tons of people (including Republican voters) actually like NPR and PBS. But Trump skipped Congress entirely and simply declared that public media wouldn’t be receiving any more federal funding — because he thinks their coverage hurts his feelings.
Yeah, I keep being amazed how many people that definitely should know better keep falling for his crap. I get that your average MAGA rally attendee is just the type that gets scammed routinely, but he’s got actual billionaires, successful lawyers and business people falling for the same shit, after a first administration where nobody came out of it looking good.
Exactly I remember certain people who worked in his administration, who, after the fact said, I can’t even get hired anywhere. Why would anybody else sign up?