Trump just pulled the most dangerous move possible only days after journalists were killed

President Trump proved the old adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks in one of his Twitter posts today.

Just days after his shouts of “Fake News” and frequent attacks on the truth-telling of the free press that he hates for calling out his interminable lies was followed by the slaying of five journalists in their own newsroom at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, Trump was back at it.

Trump’s indignant tweet pretends that one of the basic tools of journalism, the use of anonymous sources to protect whistleblowers from retaliation for disclosing the truth about the misdeeds of the powerful, is simply a case of evil editors hiding in their lairs and making up phony stories to sell newspapers or drive up online ad rates.

The president denies the existence of “anonymous sources” presumably because when he sees a headline he doesn’t like, he asks “who told them that?” and everyone around him denies being the source of the leak.

Of course, Trump also still believes Vladimir Putin when he denies interfering in the 2016 election, despite the Senate Intelligence Committee and all of the country’s intelligence agencies determining that Russia not only injected itself into the elections but it did so on Trump’s behalf, as even Fox News was forced to acknowledge today.

That Trump would continue to ignore the ramifications of his vicious and fascist-inspired attacks on the First Amendment, even after the hateful environment he’s created has led to the murder of actual reporters, demonstrates how crucial it is to vote for a Democratic majority in Congress in the midterm election to, at a bare minimum, establish a check on Trump’s worst impulses and hopefully bring the perpetrators of the crimes and corruption of his administration to justice.

Unfortunately, there is no organization that is as effective in defending the erosion of First Amendment rights as the NRA is at fighting against what it sees as any encroachment on the Second Amendment.

Somehow “They’re coming to seize your pens and word processors!” is not as effective as a rallying cry as warnings that the government is planning on taking away your precious guns. Sadly, under this administration, it should be.

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Vinnie Longobardo

is the Managing Editor of Washington Press and a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile, & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.