President Donald Trump's insinuations last week that he might use the power of the federal government to intervene on a free press could lead to unintended consequences, the New York Post wrote in its editorial.
Namely — sympathy for the press.
During Trump's onslaught of NBC News last for their sundry negative stories about the president and his administration, he raised the specter of perhaps challenging the network's FCC license.
Forget the fact that networks aren't licensed and therefore have nothing to revoke; just the notion of a president making the threat is uncharted and dangerous territory, the Post wrote.
"It still sounded like a president threatening to use federal power to close down outlets that cross him — which would be tyranny, and a violation of his oath to 'preserve, protect and defend' the Constitution," the Post wrote.
"Slapping the press wins points with the president’s base, but any hint of shutting down hostile outlets is going to sound dangerous to millions of other Americans who voted for him. If he keeps it up, they may even start sympathizing with the Fourth Estate attack dogs."
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