President Trump called for treason charges against news organizations over their coverage of the Iran war, drawing criticism from press-freedom advocates and members of Congress.
"Media outlets circulating 'fake news' should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information," Trump wrote on Truth Social. The post singled out The Wall Street Journal for reporting, sourced to two U.S. officials, that five Air Force refueling tankers were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia during an Iranian missile strike. The Journal reported the planes were damaged but not destroyed and were being repaired.
Trump disputed the tanker report and said four aircraft were in service while another would return soon. He also criticized circulation of an AI-generated video purporting to show the USS Abraham Lincoln on fire; AFP had identified the video as fabricated.
The treason post landed a day after Trump's Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of outlets he accused of "running hoaxes and news distortions." Carr offered no examples. Trump wrote that he was "thrilled to see" the threat, denouncing "Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic" news organizations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has spent the same stretch of days publicly attacking coverage of the war, now in its third week. Aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump dismissed a reporter as "a very obnoxious person" for asking why 5,000 additional Marines and sailors are being sent to the Middle East.
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts warned Carr in a letter Sunday that the administration is engaged in a "blatant attempt to muzzle the free press" whenever coverage of the war departs from the White House's preferred account. "Your Saturday post follows that same logic but extends it to the coverage of an active military conflict," Markey wrote, "where the chilling effect on journalists and the damage to the public's right to know are most severe."
