Bully Defined: Trump Attacks the News Media

We know who they are in schools. They make fun of people who are different. Bullies are the name callers. They make people feel sad. They lie about you. They mock you. Their friends are recruited against you. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of a bully in case they turn on you.

  • There’s a whole science around bullying because it’s a big problem in school systems; now it’s a big problem in world politics. 

Here’s what the science says: There are three types of bullying: Verbal, Social and Physical.

Here’s the evidence of Verbal and Social bullying as practiced by Donald Trump against the News Media.

All examples of Trump’s Bully Tactics are taken from the New York Times. These examples are organized by the type of bullying. (Enrich, 2025) Additional news sources have also been provided.

  1. Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
  • Name-calling: branded journalists as the “enemy of the people.”
  • Inappropriate sexual comments: 
    • He once said in a TV interview, talking about women “you can grab them by the pussy.” Trump lawsuit, spring 2024: he sued ABC News for defamation after a news anchor erroneously said that Trump had been found liable for rape. (The fact is that a jury found him liable for sexual abuse.) IMHO he followed through with the comments. The bully retaliates against those who report this.
  • Taunting: 
    • He popularized the phrase “fake news”* attacking the very notion of an independent news media, one that will refute his distortions. FoxNews became the media of choice – in court documents, Fox admitted that they knowingly lied on the air about the Dominion voting machines being used to “rig” the 2020 election.
    • An administration official accused a Voice of America reporter of treason when he quoted someone who had criticized Trump.
  • Threatening to cause harm: 
    • The White House announced that they will now select which reporters and news outlets are part of the press pool that covers the president, a tactic that authoritarian leaders use to control messaging.
    • “There are now 100 active suits in federal court against Trump administration actions. The White House is mounting political attacks on judges who rule against it.
    • The White House excluded Associated Press reporters from events because the wire service wouldn’t reclassify the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. 
    • He frequently sues news outlets. “Plaintiffs don’t need to win in court in order to be effective. Defending against them is expensive and time-consuming.” (Enrich, 2025).
    • The Justice Department could prosecute reporters under anti-spying laws.
  1. Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
  • Spreading rumors about someone: 
    • Trump and his followers falsely claim that news organizations, including The Times, are bankrolled by the government.
    • The U.S. Agency for Global Media, has opened human-resources investigations into Voice of America journalists for reporting on criticism of Mr. Trump or for making comments that were perceived as critical of him
  • Embarrassing someone in public:
    • The Federal Communications Commission has opened investigations into whether NPR and PBS broadcasters are acting in the public interest. 
    • Mr. Trump has filed or threatened lawsuits against news outlets whose coverage he objected to. (Kim, 2025)

Click here to read about which media companies are backing down because of the expense of lawsuits and the need to do business with the current administration.

Donald Trump is a bully on the world stage. We gave him the part. He’s one of those actors that doesn’t have to spend time practicing his part because he’s a natural. Whatever made him the bully, he’s honed his skills in New York City. As they say, If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

References

Enrich, D. (2025, March 3). Trump and the press by . The New York Times: The Morning, p. Online email.

Government, U. (2025, March 3). StopBullying.gov. Retrieved from What is Bullying: https://www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/what-is-bullying

Kim, D. E. (2025, March 2). Voice of America Journalists Face Investigations for Trump Comments. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/business/media/voice-of-america-trump.html

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