While touring Florida’s ICE detention facility (given the stomach-churning title “Alligator Alcatraz”), Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem expressed their ire over CNN promoting this app. “We’re working with Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them, because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations. We’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them. What they’re doing is illegal,” Noem said (via The Guardian).
Trump, driven as usual by ego, had an additional complaint. “And they may be prosecuted also for having given false reports on the attack in Iran,” he said. “They were given totally false reports. It was totally obliterated. And our people have to be celebrated, not come home and say, ‘What do you mean we didn’t hit the target?'”
Trump has at this point threatened basically all the major networks, and actually filed lawsuits against ABC and CBS. Unfortunately, his bullying tactics worked and both networks settled, giving Trump money and a concerning amount of power over our free press. News orgs like CNN are in serious danger of this kind of retaliation over unfavorable coverage, especially as more Trump admin officials speak out. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan also criticized the network. “This is horrendous that a national media outlet would be out there trying to forecast law enforcement operations. I think DoJ needs to look at this. They’re crossing that line,” he complained on rightwing commentator Benny Johnson’s internet show (per The Guardian). “We need to send a strong message that we need to protect the law enforcement officers.”
CNN defended its report, while also distancing itself from the ICEBlock’s actual function. “This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it,” a spokesperson said. “There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”
