NYT Publisher Blasts Trump for Anti-Media Rhetoric, Says Free Press Is ‘Under Direct Attack’

The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned the free press is “under direct attack” both in the United States and abroad, and blamed President Donald Trump’s “anti-press rhetoric” for exacerbating the problem.

Sulzberger made his comments during a speech at the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies on Tuesday; his quotes were later reprinted in the Times, where he has been the publisher since 2018.

He mentioned Trump more than two dozen times in his speech, and started off by giving the president some praise. President Trump, he said, “continues to make himself more available to reporters than previous presidents.” But the compliments ended there.

Sulzberger then criticized the president for using “schoolyard insults,” like calling his paper the “failing New York Times” and for Stalin-esque terms, he said, such as calling the press “the enemy of the people.”

This is a real issue, Sulzberger noted, because it has emboldened leaders of other countries to crack down on journalists as well: “Effectively, in his first term, President Trump exported his anti-press rhetoric to illiberal leaders abroad. Those leaders took that rhetoric as permission to develop and implement an aggressive new playbook for cracking down on journalists.”

He continued, “Now, in President Trump’s second term, this vicious cycle has been completed as the anti-press playbook he helped inspire has been imported back to the United States. That makes this a perilous moment — the shift from words to action.”

Sulzberger also saved a few words to criticize his own profession, saying, “It’s not a coincidence that trust in the media has plummeted” in recent years, with more reporters acting like pundits than actually sharing the news. To that point, A Gallup poll last fall found the American public’s trust in the mainstream media was at an all-time low.

Sulzberger — who succeeded his dad as the NYT publisher and whose family has controlled the paper dating back to the late 19th century — also shared his concern for journalists in “authoritarian states like China and Russia.” He noted how a “record number of journalists have been killed or jailed” in the past few years.

He added that, over the last year, he has studied the “anti-press playbook.” That playbook has a few go-to plays, Sulzberger said, like “sowing distrust” in the mainstream press and “encouraging wealthy or powerful allies to join in” — like Elon Musk, who publicly and financially backed President Trump during the 2024 election.

“The administration may have more serious action planned” for the Times, Sulzberger concluded. “But so far, the signs that have troubled me most have come from other public- and private-sector leaders too worried about the administration to stand up for their own rights and principles.”

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