Letters from an American
· collected 2026-09-27 · by Heather Cox Richardson
commentary
Trump’s war on the free press is continuing.
asserted
war → continue → press
Last night, Scott Nover of the Washington Post reported that the White House would not allow reporters from CNN on Air Force One as part of the press pool to cover the president as he traveled to Tennessee for a college football game.
asserted
he → report → game
CNN is a member of the pool made up of the five major TV networks.
asserted
CNN → make → networks
The other two outlets Trump tried to ban from the White House, MS NOW and Politico, are part of a different pool.
asserted
Trump → try → pool
CNN was scheduled to provide the television footage for the trip.
asserted
CNN → schedule → trip
At 6:51 this morning, Trump’s social media account posted: “Why should perpetrators of FAKE NEWS, like CNN and MSDNC, be allowed access to a very sacred place, the White House?
asserted
perpetrators → post → place
He followed up at 8:22 with “FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
asserted
NEWS → follow → HOUSE
IT HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG, AT A TREMENDOUS COST TO OUR COUNTRY.”
asserted
IT → go → COUNTRY
Later in the morning, he told reporters: “I love an open, free press.
asserted
I → tell → press
What I don’t like is the fake press.
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like → like → What
What we don’t want is—we don’t want fake news.”
asserted
we → want → news
As bad news continues to plague the administration, Trump has reasons for wanting to control the press.
asserted
Trump → continue → press
On Thursday, in a scathing letter, a key prosecutor in the case of the six people charged with felonies after a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Broadview detention facility in Illinois—the Broadview Six—resigned under protest.
asserted
prosecutor → charge → protest
Sheri Mecklenburg was a career prosecutor in the Department of Justice who was near retirement and appeared to have doubts about the felony charges against the six protesters.
asserted
who → appear → protesters
In the protest, people surrounded an ICE vehicle, but only the six, all of whom were active in Democratic politics, were charged.
asserted
all → surround → politics
When the cases fell apart because of prosecutorial misconduct, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros, a strong Trump supporter, laid all of the blame for the misconduct on Mecklenburg, claiming he had been out of the loop in how the case was progressing.
asserted
case → fall → loop
But in her resignation letter, Mecklenburg said she was retiring so she could defend herself.
uncertain
she → say → herself
She wrote that she had kept Boutros fully informed of the case and that he was using her as a scapegoat for his own misconduct.
asserted
he → write → misconduct
She said he had “personally directed” the felony prosecution after she objected “that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.”
asserted
case → say → charges
She says he threatened to fire her if she tried to push back on the false allegations.
asserted
she → say → allegations
Mecklenburg’s resignation and allegations illuminate the Trump administration’s efforts to persecute political opponents.
asserted
resignation → illuminate → opponents
Boutros’s tenure as U.S. attorney has been so problematic that there had been an exodus of senior officials from the office, and more than 100 former prosecutors signed a letter warning of failure of leadership in the office and the poisoning of the office with “once-forbidden political considerations.”
asserted
prosecutors → sign → considerations
Perhaps of more concern to Trump is the report yesterday from Julia Jacobs of the New York Times that whistleblowers who used to work at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts say that six months ago, Trump loyalists running the center cancelled plans to fix the leaking roof they now claim is so dangerous the center must be closed and repaired.
uncertain
center → use → roof
Those repairs, they say, will require the addition of Trump’s name to the building.
asserted
they → say → building
The whistleblowers claim that the center’s board put the $1.4 million that had been allocated to fix the roof toward Trump’s repainting of the building’s columns, which cost $4.4 million.
uncertain
which → claim → million
As his job approval numbers continue to decline and as individuals and the courts try to stop his unlawful actions, Trump is pushing ever harder to cement his power.
asserted
Trump → continue → power
The courts have given him leeway in national security, and he is using that leeway.
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he → give → leeway
A recent New York Times/Siena poll showed that 69% of the American people disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war in Iran—59% of them strongly—and only 27% approve (15% strongly).
asserted
% → show → %
And yet, on Friday, September 25, Alexander Ward and Summer Said of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has told aides that he is planning to start bombing Iran again after the midterm elections.
asserted
he → report → elections
Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and reopen talks about nuclear weapons if the U.S. ends its blockade of Iranian ports, but Trump has rejected the offer, and his belief that the Iranians won’t meet his demands makes him think he’ll need to ramp up strikes again.
asserted
he → offer → strikes
But, the reporters say, Trump’s views could shift over the coming weeks as conditions, including the midterms, change.
uncertain
conditions → say → midterms
At the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, September 22, Trump told the heads of state and heads of government in the audience that his administration is “seeking a fundamental change” in the government of Cuba.
asserted
administration → tell → Cuba
James LaPorta of CBS News reports that the U.S. Army Reserve is considering whether it can provide support units, including police forces and medical personnel, to the U.S. Southern Command, which covers Latin America south of Mexico, the waters around Central and South America, and the Caribbean, including Cuba.
asserted
which → report → Cuba
The memo CBS reviewed doesn’t say for what operation the troops would be needed “in 90 to 120 days,” but LaPorta reports that “multiple U.S. officials” said the planning is for a potential operation aimed at Cuba.
asserted
planning → review → Cuba
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Trump has invited Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 (G20) summit in December in Miami, Florida.
asserted
Trump → tell → Miami
The G20 is a forum of the world’s biggest advanced and emerging economies to coordinate economic policy, and by extending the invitation, Trump is offering to welcome Putin back into global organizations without ending his invasion of Ukraine.
asserted
Trump → emerge → Ukraine
The administration suggests that Putin will be more likely to end the war if he is included than if he is not, a position critics note gives Putin legitimacy without changing his behavior.
uncertain
critics → suggest → behavior
Yesterday, as Casey He of Politico reported, fourteen senators led by Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged Trump to rescind the invitation.
asserted
senators → report → invitation
“President Putin bears sole responsibility for launching Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine,” they wrote.
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they → bear → Ukraine
“Allowing him to participate in a G20 Summit in the United States raises serious concerns about legitimizing and normalizing a government that continues to attack Ukrainian civilian targets every day.”
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that → allow → targets
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
