Black scholars say Trump TV raises new questions about power, media and public trust

Political experts examine the rise of Trump’s media ecosystem and what it means for accountability journalism.

Amid a legal battle over President Donald Trump‘s press ban against news outlets and the subsequent boycott by television networks, the White House’s newly launched “Trump TV” is raising eyebrows.

Scholars and experts who spoke with theGrio say a sitting U.S. president refusing access to news organizations while trumpeting his own branded TV platform in their place feels a lot less like the democracy the United States has been for more than two centuries.

“Trump TV is the latest instance of authoritarianism,” says Dr. Marcus Board, Jr., associate professor of political science at Howard University.

In authoritarian countries across the globe, from Russia to China, state TV—which Trump TV is being compared to by critics—is used to control information that is shared with the public, including promoting positive narratives about leaders, downplaying economic or policy failures, and suppressing dissent.

As Journal for Democracy notes, “Despite the rise of the Internet, state-dominated media—especially television—remain a crucial tool for regime control in authoritarian societies. Governments in China and Russia are the forefront of the state media model, but such systems dominate in countries as diverse as Azerbaijan, Iran, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.”

Trump, who has popularized and perhaps coined the phrase “Fake News,” has seemingly laid the groundwork for distrust of the media, instead suggesting that his truth supersedes that of the journalists who work to fact check his false statements or outright lies. The president even launched a social media platform, Truth Social, that plays on that tension.

“We’ve seen the Trump media empire grow in such a way from his Truth Social and other sort of enterprises related to the media, and so this is just the next evolution of this,” says Dr. Alvin Tillery, co-founder and CEO of 2040 Strategy Group and political science professor at Northwestern University. “It’s a long grift, but it is troubling from the standpoint of the rise of authoritarianism in our country.”

Casting out independent media because he doesn’t like their coverage of him and replacing them with his own branded TV platform is viewed as an escalation of the Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. The president faced similar accusations of autocratic behavior as a result of actions like refusing to accept his 2020 presidential election loss, expanding his executive powers to fire independent government watch dogs and civil service workers, and deploying the military to U.S. city streets without the consent of governors.

Stacey Abrams, the voting rights advocate and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, has repeatedly warned of Trump’s actions through her promotion of her “10 Steps to Autocracy.” The Democrat warns that Trump’s attacks on the media are a major function of his authoritarianism.

“You make certain that you break how we communicate. So you criticize the media and you create your own echo chamber of propaganda. You call it truth even though you know you’re lying,” she previously shared.

Dr. Board says the newly launched Trump TV comes at a time when America’s “attention economy has already decimated the media, with many outlets like theGrio and others fighting to uphold standards that many abandoned long ago.” He added, “That’s when we know authoritarianism has reached the roots—when people have given up their will to fight back.”

Dr. Tillery similarly tells theGrio, “The establishment media’s got to be counterprogramming to Trump TV…this means the gloves should be off, and there should be no deference to the executive branch.”

The political scientist said Trump “may have wanted” the current showdown with the White House press corps so that he could “expand it in this way.” He continued, “Outlets like theGrio are already doing a great job, but it’s really the legacy media that’s going to have to step up.”

Following the, at times, deadly consequences of Trump’s governance, Dr. Board told theGrio, “Long after Trump, America will need to reflect on a so-called democracy that lets social problems become so destructive that over 70 million people are desperate enough to turn to a reality show reject.”

Reflecting on the concept of Trump TV, he added, “It’s also embarrassing to be 80 years old and still think you’re a pageant queen.”

Brandon Weathersby, spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century, says that, ultimately, President Trump “threw real reporters out of the White House and replaced them with his own state TV because he can’t stand Americans seeing the truth about his failing economy.” He told theGrio, “Instead of fixing the mess he made, he’s running a 24/7 cover-up to gaslight working families into believing everything is fine.”

However, Weathersby said he doesn’t think Trump’s intent to distract will succeed.

“Those families know better, because they’re the ones choosing between a full tank and a full fridge,” he said. “Meanwhile, Trump and his billionaire cabinet are cashing in on power, cozying up to ultrawealthy donors hunting for corrupt favors, and never worrying about pumping their own gas, let alone paying for it.”