Donald Trump is remaking the US media in his own image — and smashing accountability with it

Continuing his war against what he calls “fake news”, the US president is hobbling journalists and media outlets he considers to be hostile to him

US President Donald Trump is making large and important claims, one palpably false, the others without offering any evidence, and it seems few if any people take him seriously. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

This is the point of absurdity we have reached: on March 15, US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post, asserted that American news organisations were running AI-generated Iranian propaganda, and should be charged with treason for the dissemination of false information. 

One of the instances he cited was coverage of Iranians at a rally to support new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, which he said was totally AI-generated, and the event never took place, despite abundant evidence to the contrary.