READ: Trump hints that his U.S. media takeover is just beginning

A very political speech in front of U.S. troops included an ominous line.

“They’re getting better. They’re not there yet.”

That was the president of the United States last night, speaking to a packed hangar of U.S. sailors aboard the USS George Washington in Tokyo Bay. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it little comment wasn’t about military readiness or morale. He was talking about the American free press.

Trump had just finished ridiculing the “fake news media” in front of uniformed troops. Then, with a smirk, he acknowledged that the journalists covering his trip were, in his view, improving — meaning they were finally beginning to behave as he believes they should, with deference and obedience. “They’re getting better,” he said. “They’re not there yet.”

It was a throwaway line for the cameras but an obvious signal to his friends and supporters. The president was nodding to his state-sanctioned media takeover.

Donald Trump is less than a year into his effort to use the powers of the presidency to pressure the free press into becoming a “pro-Trump” press — whether through threats and lawsuits or corporate mergers — and he’s already seeing the fruits of that campaign. To him, it’s just the beginning.

This week his allies quietly tightened their grip on two pillars of American media.

At CBS News, the newly installed editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, is executing what insiders are calling an effort to “restore balance.” Weiss is operating under the watchful eye of a White House “bias monitor” who was placed at the network to ensure, in effect, that its recent acquisition by Paramount Skydance goes the way Trump wants. It’s an unprecedented arrangement in modern U.S. journalism to have a major broadcast network under political supervision.

In this context, the effort to bring “balance” appears an Orwellian euphemism for silencing dissent. Veteran correspondents are reportedly being purged in a “major shakeup,” and “60 Minutes,” once the flagship of American investigative reporting, is being retooled to fit a friendlier posture toward the administration. Several anchors who challenged Trump in past interviews are said to be on the chopping block.

And while that newsroom shake-up unfolded, another alarming story slipped by with little fanfare.

A senior Trump administration official told the New York Post that the White House favors Paramount Skydance (the same company that scooped up CBS) in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which is home to CNN, HBO, and other networks. Rival bidders, the source bragged, would face “stiff hurdles from U.S. regulators.” In other words, the president of the United States is now using federal power to engineer which of his wealthy allies will own which media outlets.

As journalist Matt Gertz observed, the “Orbanization” of the U.S. media is happening in plain sight. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán perfected this approach by leveraging state power to hand control of independent outlets to his political cronies, creating the illusion of competition while extinguishing his critics. That process didn’t happen overnight. It began slowly, under the same pretext Trump now invokes. “Balance.”

Now look at the big picture — the constant threats and ridiculing of the press, the direct political supervision of major networks, and the backroom meddling in media mergers — and even a third grader can draw a line between all the dots. Donald Trump is building the scaffolding of information capture. He doesn’t need to send troops into newsrooms to take control of the airwaves. This is the subtler takeover of institutions that decide what Americans see, hear, and believe.

In authoritarian systems, this type of action is stitched together through two narratives. The first is that the media is corrupt; the second is that the leader alone can make it honest again. Trump has repeated that mantra for nearly a decade, and now, with allies embedded in newsrooms and regulators serving as enforcers, he’s closer than ever to realizing it.

For the troops who applauded him last night, the meaning of his words may not have registered. “They’re getting better. They’re not there yet.” But for anyone who’s studied or lived through the hollowing-out of a free press — from Budapest to Moscow to Ankara — it should feel very familiar and pretty damn scary.

The president isn’t talking about the media getting “better.” He’s talking about it getting his way.

P.S. WHAT’S HAPPENING ON TREASON

Here’s what’s coming up.

1. Tues, Oct 28 @ 3pm ET - EXCLUSIVE - New Book Release - Autocrats vs. Democrats w/ Ambassador Michael McFaul - I will be welcoming former senior Obama official Michael McFaul for the official release of his new book, which you can pre-order online. His tome outlines America’s future on a turbulent world stage. You can join here.

2. BIG NEWS / Weds, Oct 29 @ 12noon ET - Subscribers Only - Weekly Wednesday Coffee - This will be a short weekly coffee, but there’s a reason. I’ll be arriving in NYC for a media announcement. But if you join for our quick coffee, you’ll be the first to know what it is. You can join here.

3. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT / The 2026 midterm fight begins w/ Senate Candidate Amy McGrath - She’s running for the open U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky, and she’s a fighter pilot with a laser-focus on democracy. You can watch the replay here.