Nicolai Haugsted
Trump reaches for unusual cancer comparison as he defends controversial press restrictions.
Donald Trump has spent decades complaining about unfavorable news coverage, but his latest battle with the media has gone considerably further than angry speeches and Truth Social posts.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico recently found themselves stripped of White House access after Trump accused the organizations of unfair and overwhelmingly negative reporting. A federal judge subsequently ordered their credentials temporarily restored while litigation over the restrictions continues.
Trump was pressed about that conflict during a wide-ranging interview with Time. Asked how restricting journalists could be reconciled with his stated support for a free press, the president defended his approach by arguing that certain outlets would criticize him regardless of what he accomplished.
Then cancer entered the conversation.
Trump imagines curing cancer and still getting bad press
Trump insisted during the interview that his objection was not to journalism itself but to coverage he considers deliberately unfair.
CNN and MS NOW have long been frequent targets of his criticism, with Trump repeatedly accusing both networks of producing “fake news.”
His hypothetical example went considerably further.
“If I do the finest thing, if I found the cure to cancer, they would say, ‘Why didn’t he move quicker?’ They are just horrible people, and they’re so bad,” Trump told Time.
Trump argued that negative coverage has failed to persuade the public because voters can judge his performance for themselves.
“I’m in the Oval Office. I mean, the public is very smart. If I wasn’t doing a good job, I wouldn’t have won that election by a lot,” he said.
The president did win the 2024 election, taking all seven major battleground states and defeating Kamala Harris in both the Electoral College and national popular vote.
Another number Trump used in the same interview was considerably less accurate. He claimed to have won “86% popular vote,” apparently confusing his 86-vote Electoral College margin with his actual 49.8 percent share of the nationwide popular vote.
Negative coverage triggered the original ban
The dispute began after Trump announced restrictions targeting CNN, MS NOW and Politico in September.
CNN later reported that Trump aide Natalie Harp had shown him a graphic illustrating negative Politico coverage. According to CNN’s reporting, Trump became furious after seeing it and subsequently moved against the three organizations.
Trump publicly insisted that his action was directed at what he considers dishonest reporting rather than legitimate journalism.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the free press, something which I cherish,” Trump wrote at the time, before describing his move as an attack on “fake news.”
The restrictions immediately affected more than three newsrooms.
CNN had been scheduled to perform television pool duties, meaning its journalists and camera crews would provide footage distributed to other networks. After the White House blocked CNN, the television pool suspended coverage rather than replace the network with another outlet.
A judge forced the White House to retreat
CNN, MS NOW and Politico challenged the restrictions in court.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the White House ban on September 24 and ordered the administration to restore the organizations’ hard passes. Journalists from the three outlets were eventually allowed back onto White House grounds.
The courtroom defeat did not completely end CNN’s access problems.
The following day, the White House informed CNN that its journalists would not be permitted to travel aboard Air Force One for Trump’s trip to Tennessee, despite the network being scheduled for television pool duty.
CNN’s lawyers argued that the judge’s order covered those pool responsibilities as well, while the precise scope of the ruling remained disputed.
Kaitlan Collins gets dragged into the interview
Trump also used his Time interview to return to one of his regular media adversaries, CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
The president complained that even accomplishments he considers exceptional receive negative treatment and then attacked Collins personally.
“So at a certain point, you say, ‘What’s the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlan Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, according to the interview, before arguing that even something “spectacular” would receive unfavorable coverage.
CNN noted Thursday that Trump brought up Collins without being asked about her specifically.
His broader argument remained consistent throughout the exchange: Trump believes persistently hostile coverage justifies excluding outlets he considers unfair.
The ongoing court fight presents a very different question.
Judges are being asked to consider whether a president can restrict journalists’ access because of their coverage, regardless of whether he regards their reporting as unfair.
Trump, meanwhile, has supplied his own test for just how impossible he believes favorable coverage would be.
Apparently, even curing cancer would not do the trick.
