Norman Ornstein fears what’s coming down the pike
'We have lost our guardrails against autocracy’
By Mike Sorrell
Kaitlyn Collins, CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent, asked a pertinent question Tuesday at the Trump administration’s first press conference: How is Trump “deciding which laws to enforce and which to ignore?”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt blew smoke. She did not answer the question.
Give Collins credit for asking a simple, important question that cut to the chase of what’s going on this week in Washington as Trump continues to run roughshod over the federal government. Too often, the media is as docile as a kitten and either unable or unwilling to confront the dictatorial assault that’s going on.
During the first Trump administration, CNN reporter Jim Acosta routinely posed uncomfortable questions to Trump and his press secretaries. Trump came to hate him. This week, CNN’s management pushed Acosta off the news network, an act obviously aimed at making Trump happy.
Meanwhile, when Tuesday’s press conference ended, CNN reporter Brian Steltzer, who covers the media beat, praised the performance of the young press secretary Leavitt, saying “a star is born.”
I gritted my teeth. Somewhere, Norman Ornstein must have screamed back at his television.
Ornstein, now in his 70s, is a scholar and columnist who for more than two decades has said the federal government – and Congress in particular – is dysfunctional. He now says the media is dysfunctional as well.
Salon’s Chauncey DeVega this week asked Ornstein to comment on how things are going now that Donald Trump is in the second week of his presidency. Here, in full, is what Ornstein told DeVega:
“I am distraught. This is just as bad as we have feared. The sweeping executive orders, right out of Project 2025, stretch and in most cases shatter legal and constitutional limits, but I do not in any way trust the Supreme Court to constrain the dictator. The actions to stop legitimate and important government programs in their tracks, including foreign aid and information about diseases and viruses, are destructive and deadly. This is only the beginning.
“As I have said for years, and as Susan Glasser wrote in The New Yorker, the strategy of flooding the zone with scandals and outrages means that we lose track, lose our capacity for outrage. They are lost on most Americans, in part because of the inadequacy of the press coverage. [Trump] will get away with a lot of this until it is too late.
“The press is once again normalizing Trump with softball questions. Any tough ones get thrown back at the questioner, with other journalists refusing to follow up or defend their own. So people see an active president who reporters say good things about because they love their access and fear any blowback – including from their owners.
“We have lost our guardrails against autocracy. The press is pathetic. The Republicans running Congress are pathetic. The Supreme Court is in Trump’s pocket. Civil society, starting with the business community, is worthless. Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
The media landscape is about to become even more polluted as right-wing ideologues who masquerade as journalists descend upon the White House briefing room and push their praise of Trump while stifling the questions of legitimate journalists.
Leavitt, the 27-year-old press secretary, announced at the outset of the press conference that Trump’s new policy allows “new media” and social influencers to participate in press briefings. “Independent journalists” and podcasters can participate as well.
Reporter Justin Baragota of The Independent, quoted Leavitt as saying, “Millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media, and other independent outlets. It is essential that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House into the new media landscape of 2025.”
A few minutes later, as Leavitt took questions, she called on Brian Glenn, a correspondent with Rural America’s Voice.
“You look great,” Glenn said to Leavitt. “You are doing a great job.”
“Thank you,” Leavitt replied.
Glenn then asked the sort of syrupy, pro-Trump question that will undoubtedly characterize White House press conferences led by Leavitt.
“You talked about transparency, and some of us in this room know just how transparent President Trump has been the last five or six years,” Glenn said. “I think you’ll do the same. But my question is, do you think this latest incident with the president of Columbia is indicative of the global power and respect they have for President Trump moving forward not only to engage in economic diplomacy with these countries but also world peace?”
Glenn is the boyfriend of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
On the cover: Brian Glenn shared this photo of himself with Marjorie Taylor Greene on X, with this note: “Forty nine has never looked so good. Happy Birthday to my sweetheart, America’s national treasure.”