US sees surge in violence against journalists under Trump, report says
Source: The Guardian
Tue 23 Dec 2025 06.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 23 Dec 2025 06.21 EST
The United States has seen a dramatic increase in violence against journalists since Donald Trump again took office. Most of the reporters and photographers who were allegedly attacked by law enforcement officials were covering protests over the Trump administration’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that tracks such incidents.
The US press have suffered about as many assaults this year as in the previous three years combined, the organization states in a new report.
That rise is largely because whenever there is significant civil unrest, journalists cover it, which makes them more vulnerable to attacks. But anti-media rhetoric from the US president and other public leaders has also increased hostility towards journalists, which can lead to more violence, according to press freedom advocates and journalism researchers.
Trump has repeatedly lambasted the mainstream US media, baselessly accused it of lying about him and his policies and repeatedly insulted several journalists in public. “When the president models ridicule and delegitimization, it signals to supporters that journalists are fair targets,” said Lars Willnat, a Syracuse University professor who has studied the impact of political polarization on perceptions of journalists. “That shift matters because violence becomes easier to justify once journalists are seen as political combatants rather than neutral observers.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/23/violence-against-journalists-increase-trump
Link to Freedom of the Press Foundation REPORT - Press arrests used to silence protest coverage in 2025
= new reply since forum marked as read
