Vice President JD Vance’s recent attack on journalists, calling the press one of the “least trusted institutions” in the country, shines a light on an ongoing tactic the Trump administration uses to “stoke anger” towards the media — and it’s concerning, according to experts in history, journalism and the First Amendment.
During a sit-down interview with right-wing pundit Megyn Kelly this week, Vance slammed the media, and particularly the White House press corps, charging that journalists have a “political bias” and are not trusted by the public because they’re “angry all the time” and “fake.”
“The media is one of the least trusted institutions in the United States of America,” he said. “More people would trust them, more people would like them, if they actually expressed the range of emotions.”
“I’m not saying you have to agree with everything that me or President [Donald] Trump do, but nobody is angry all the time,” he continued. “And when you come across as angry all the time, it’s just fake.”
Vance and Kelly began their conversation railing against journalists who cover the White House after the vice president referenced Trump’s viral exchange with CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins earlier this week. Collins was asking Trump about the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files, noting that survivors of Epstein have expressed outrage that they haven’t gotten justice, when the president scolded her for not smiling.
