Reporters Without Borders includes US President Donald Trump on its annual list of press predators "as a result of his appalling record of attacks" against journalists. The veto of some media in the White House, "abusive legal actions" or the instrumentalization of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are some of the antecedents that justified the Republican's accession to the list.

First modification: 11/02/2026 - 19:02 Last modification: 11/02/2026 - 19:05

Donald Trump has officially entered Reporters Without Borders' list of press predators for "reducing journalism to political propaganda" during his second term in the United States, according to the recent report published by the entity.

Trump's attacks against the press "increasingly go beyond the framework of rhetoric and public policies to translate into physical restrictions imposed on journalists"

In the category of political predators, the Republican shares a group with other presidents such as the Russian president, Vladimir Putin; the Nicaraguan, Daniel Ortega - along with his wife, Rosa Murillo -, or the Belarusian, Alexander Lukashenko. All of them, accused by RSF of "using the State machinery to silence the media."

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The NGO report highlights that Trump's attacks against the press "increasingly go beyond the framework of rhetoric and public policies to translate into physical restrictions imposed on journalists."

For all these reasons, the United States fell seven places in the press freedom ranking in one year to remain in position 64.

It is the first time that Trump has entered the RSF list, "after falling short last year," highlighted Reporters Without Borders, whose ranking of predators is based on the World Press Freedom Index, of the same authorship, which annually measures the quality of the right to information by country.

Read alsoDoes Trump aim to govern without Congress if the Democrats win the Midterms?: this is how he prepares

The White House vs. the press

The US president has been baptized by RSF as a "predator of press freedom", since "he is violating constitutional guarantees and threatening citizens' access to reliable and independent news", through "an avalanche of verbal attacks, legal intimidation and administrative reprisals against media outlets considered hostile."

The Republican leader has maintained aggressive rhetoric towards journalists, whom he has defined as "stupid", "stupid", "terrible people" and spreaders of hoaxes. Among their expletives, the disqualifying ones particularly stand out against female journalists, denigrating their physical appearance or their intellectual side. One of the most controversial comments was when he said "shut up, piggy" to a reporter who had asked him about his links to the case of confessed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Among other antecedents that led Trump to appear on RSF's list are "the restrictions on journalists' access to the White House and the Pentagon," in the words of RSF. In one of the most recent cases of press veto, the Republican announced on September 18 that he would prohibit journalists from the networks 'CNN', 'MS NOW' and 'Politico' from entering the White House after accusing them of spreading false news.

The media took their exclusion to court, where federal judge Timothy Kelly agreed with them, allowing the sanctioned communicators to re-enter. In mid-October, Judge Kelly reaffirmed the right of reporters to cover the presidential headquarters.

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In parallel, RSF accused Trump of "abusive legal actions" and of "exerting political pressure" against some critical media, after the Republican sued the television networks 'ABC News' and 'CBS'.

Another complaint against 'The Wall Street Journal', filed by the president after the newspaper published an alleged birthday letter sent by Trump to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was condemned by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) as a "strategy to intimidate the independent press and discourage critical coverage."

In addition, RSF blames the Republican for "dismantling public media," citing the case of the 'Voice of America' network, which closed at the beginning of the second Trump Administration.

"The American president seems determined to force independent journalism to serve his political interests," highlights RSF, before accusing Trump of using the broadcasting regulatory body as a weapon against the press. In fact, the NGO also included Brendan Carr, chosen by Trump in 2025 to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on its list of predators.

Under his mandate, the broadcasting administrative body "has threatened to revoke the broadcast licenses of television networks critical of the president of the United States and has used regulatory procedures as a weapon to influence their editorial decisions," RSF denounced.

Additionally, the FCC has repealed the national limit on broadcast media ownership, which prevented a single television group from reaching more than 39% of American households. This decision "facilitates greater concentration of media ownership at the expense of media pluralism," in the words of RSF.

Read alsoTrump's press veto: is US democracy at risk?

Netanyahu, Musk and Milei, among Trump's allies on the list

RSF divides predators of press freedom into five categories: political, security, economic, legal and social.

Among those accused of endangering the safety of communicators, the Israeli Armed Forces, the Chinese Communist Party and the Mexican cartels repeat this year, whom RSF blames for creating "a climate of terror" in a country in which organized crime murders a journalist every month, according to 2026 statistics.

In the "legal" category, reserved for actors who seek to criminalize journalism through abusive judicial procedures, the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, makes his debut, joining the ranks of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the conglomerate led by the Indian businessman Gautam Adani.

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On the economic level, RSF points to the American technology giants Alphabet (owner of Google) and Meta (owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram), but also billionaires such as the Frenchman Vincent Bolloré (owner of newspapers, television and radio) and the Georgian Bidzina Ivanichvili for weakening independent media or putting editorial independence under pressure.

Elon Musk, who repeats in the ranking, is not included in this category, but in that of predators who feed misinformation, taking advantage in particular of his social network X, as well as for spreading hatred towards journalists and hindering freedom of information, always according to the NGO.

In that same section is the Argentine president, Javier Milei, for "multiplying attacks against journalists and critical media, whom he regularly accuses of corruption, lies and political manipulation," according to RSF, which recalls the South American president's phrase: "We don't hate journalists enough." Milei published more than 1,600 messages hostile to the press on his X account in just 47 days, between April and May 2026, according to an analysis by RSF.

The ranking also reserves a section for those who have left it, although not precisely because they have reformed their harmful behavior against the press. Among the predators who are no longer there is the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, killed in a bombing against Tehran launched at the beginning of the United States and Israel's war against Iran.

In addition to him, the Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro disappeared from the ranking after having been overthrown and imprisoned by the United States after a fleeting incursion in Caracas. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, and that of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, no longer belong to the list of predators after losing power at the polls.

Of course, warns the general director of RSF, Thibaut Bruttin: "Other people are already taking their place."

Read alsoJournalists from 'Politico', 'MS NOW' and 'CNN' enter the White House after several attempts and a judge's order

With EFE and local media

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