Donald Trump rambled and raged in an unusual visit to the Department of Justice on Friday, rattling off a laundry list of enemies and vowing to have some investigated.
The president’s tirade decried mainstream media companies’ coverage as “illegal,” claimed the DOJ under Joe Biden was a “corrupt group of hacks and radicals,” and chillingly vowed retribution for his many foes.
“I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred,” he said. “We will expose, and very much expose, their egregious crimes and severe misconduct, of which was levels you’ve never seen.”
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Media outlets took the brunt of Trump’s rage and threats in an hour-long speech. He called out some of the biggest players in journalism by name—ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post—and said they operate illegally at the behest of Democrats.
“I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party,” he said. “And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.”
A number of critics likened such a brazen attack on a free press—even by Trump’s lofty, anti-media standards—as being out of a fascist playbook. A former FBI senior official compared the president to Saddam Hussein. Adding to concerns was Trump making such remarks from inside the Department of Justice—the first speech there by a president since the Barack Obama years.
Trump suggested the outlets he listed had illegally put pressure on judges to rule against him, ignoring the First Amendment’s protections for free speech that allows for open debate and criticism.
“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative, and it has to stop,” he said. “It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges and it’s entered—it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other.”
Trump did not say outright that he is going to sic Attorney General Pam Bondi on media companies, but he did say—right after his attack on the media—that the DOJ was “restoring law, restoring order, and restoring public safety in America.”
The president appeared to begin Friday’s speech on script, praising those attending like Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, his chief of staff Susie Wiles, and their acolytes. The cheery start did not last long before he launched into attacks on his enemies, however.
“So proud of the people in this room, but first, we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls,” Trump said.
Trump went on to call out Jack Smith, who oversaw the prosecution of his dropped federal cases; Norm Eisen, a Trump critic and former diplomat; Merrick Garland, attorney general during the Biden Administration; Mark Elias, an elections attorney for the Democratic Party; and Mark Pomerantz, an ex-assistant district attorney who probed Trump’s finances.
“These are people that are bad people, really bad people,” Trump said of his perceived list of enemies. “They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and third world country. But in the end, the thugs failed, and the truth won, freedom won, justice won, democracy won.”
Trump claimed—without proof—the DOJ of old had, under the leadership of a Catholic president, classified Catholics as “domestic terrorists.” He also claimed the Justice Department “set loose violent criminals while targeting patriotic parents at school board meetings.”
Trump’s rant appeared to veer off topic in its second half, and he even snuck in an update on the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as one last insult against his predecessor.
“Just before I came here I got some pretty good news,” he said of the conflict. “But we have to see what happens. It’s a long way to go.”
Trump cautioned the conflict could turn into World War III, but he said he “had some very good calls” with Moscow and Kyiv—calls he still asserts would have never been necessary had he won in 2020.
“Russia has a large group of Ukrainian soldiers, as we speak, surrounded and in grave danger,” Trump claimed, adding he asked for them to be spared. “They’ve been able to surround them. They’re in grave danger. Biden should have never let this war happen.”
