Donald Trump and Elon Musk each took to social media this morning to rage against members of the media who have said or reported something they do not like, calling for the news figures to be fired. On Truth Social, Trump blasted The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, a columnist, who appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. […]Donald Trump and Elon Musk each took to social media this morning to rage against members of the media who have said or reported something they do not like, calling for the news figures to be fired. On Truth Social, Trump blasted The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, a columnist, who appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
UPDATED, with comment from the Post: Donald Trump and Elon Musk each took to social media this morning to rage against members of the media who have said or reported something they do not like, calling for the news figures to be fired.
On Truth Social, Trump blasted The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, a columnist, who appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Trump wrote, “Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post is INCOMPETENT! So sad to see him trying to justify the waste, fraud, and corruption at USAID with his pathetic Radical Left SPIN. He should be fired immediately!!!”
Robinson has been critical of Trump’s first weeks in office, writing in a recent column that Republicans have displayed “cowardice” as the president “vandalizes the federal government and trashes our vital international alliances.”
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Musk targeted Katherine Long, reporter at The Wall Street Journal. On Thursday, Long broke the story about Marko Elez, a staff member at Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who was linked to a now-deleted social media account that embraced racism and eugenics. “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” a post from July read. After the Journal inquired with the White House about Elez’s posts, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that he had resigned. Elez had access to the payments system at the Department of the Treasury.
Responding to other posts about Long, Musk wrote on X, “She’s a disgusting and cruel person.” He also wrote that “she should be fired immediately.” He also polled his followers on whether DOGE should hire Elez back.
Musk has called himself a free speech absolutist, and Trump signed an executive order that claimed to be restoring free speech. The order accused Joe Biden’s administration of putting “coercive pressure” on third parties — social media platforms — to suppress speech. Trump’s order was to “ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
But Musk and Trump have sought to undermine news outlets for reporting they don’t like. Trump has called for CBS to lose its broadcast licenses and for 60 Minutes to be canceled for the way that the show edited an interview with Kamala Harris.
A spokesperson for the Journal did not return a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Post said, “Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist with a 45-year record of integrity, professionalism and scrupulous reporting and commentary. The Washington Post stands behind Gene – just as it stands behind all journalists and news organizations dedicated to independent coverage and a free press.”
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