President Donald Trump confronting CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins at the UN on September 22, 2026
Trump, in his rambling and confused message, expressed dismay that CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and other unnamed “SLEAZEBAGS” had been present to cover his Tuesday appearance at the United Nations General Assembly after he banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House on Friday. He added of Collins: “She’s got a ‘TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC [MSNOW]. They’re all sick, treasonous, and demented!”
The post marked at least the third time this month, and the ninth time since March, that Trump had accused news outlets of “treasonous” reporting, according to a Media Matters review of his statements on social media and transcripts of his public events compiled by Roll Call’s Factba.se. The president also said news outlets had nearly or almost committed treason on four additional occasions during his second term, though since May he has transitioned to making outright accusations.
Treason is “the only crime expressly defined by the Constitution,” which limits such charges to “levying war” against the United States or “in adhering to [its] enemies, giving them aid and comfort,” and the Supreme Court has narrowly interpreted that definition. Trump has nonetheless declared that a slew of figures — from Democratic congressional leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to leakers within his administration to critics of AI to members of the group that filed suit to block his construction of a White House ballroom — have committed treason by defying his will.
But his frequent claims that news outlets are committing treason by publishing reports he doesn’t like are particularly worrisome and fit into a larger war on the press in which his administration has used state power to punish journalists for their work. The Justice Department, for example, argued in a Tuesday night court filing that the president’s banning of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House is justified because the outlets’ reporting on stories related to the Iran war and the ballroom “have threatened national security.”
[EDITOR'S NOTE: On Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the White House to “return, reinstate, and restore” the reporters' credentials while litigation proceeds. But journalists from those outlets were denied access again on Thursday morning.]
In December, Trump responded to reporting on his apparent physical decline by calling it “seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.’” That was the first example we found of the president linking reporting with treason since his return to the White House.
But Trump’s treason accusations really picked up after the war he launched against Iran on February 28 began to falter. Since then, Trump has accused CNN, MS NOW, ABC, NBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times of treason, singling out CNN’s Collins and Times reporter David Sanger in particular. He has specifically described it as “treasonous” to report that the Iran war has left Iran in a strengthened position, that it has reduced U.S. munitions stockpiles to a critical level, and that he is displeased with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The best case scenario is that the president of the United States is an addled old man who is impotently lashing out at his critics as his administration collapses around him. Possible alternative explanations — that Trump is encouraging his pliant Justice Department appointees to actually file charges against reporters, or his followers to take matters into their own hands — are more sinister.
Here’s a list of examples of the president’s treason rhetoric.
September 22, 2026: CNN, MS NOW are “sick, treasonous, and demented!” [Truth Social]
September 3, 2026: “For the treasonous SCUM that refuses to accurately report on our Military Operation in Iran…” [Truth Social]
September 3, 2026: “Media Outlets that keep harping on the fact that we have no ammunition … are actually treasonous.” [Truth Social]
August 6, 2026: “I really believe” The Washington Post’s “fake ‘reporting’” that Trump is displeased with Hegseth “is treasonous!” [Truth Social]
July 13, 2026: “I actually think it’s treasonous” that The New York Times reported Iran is “stronger today than they were four months ago.” [Interview, Fox News’ Fox & Friends]
July 13, 2026: “The fake news would rather see us lose the war than win the war, which is really treasonous, which is really treasonous in a certain way.” [Remarks]
June 21, 2026: The Times’ Iran coverage “is, in my opinion, ‘TREASONOUS.’” [Truth Social]
May 15, 2026: Trump tells Times reporter Sanger, “I actually think it's sort of treasonous what you write” about Iran, “I actually think it’s treason when you write, like, ‘They’re doing well militarily.’” [Press gaggle]
May 12, 2026: “When the Fake News says that the Iranian enemy is doing well, Militarily, against us, it’s virtual TREASON…” [Truth Social]
April 12, 2026: “CNN, The New York Times, ABC fake news, NBC fake news … they report things that they know are false. It's almost treasonous, actually.” [Interview, Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures]
March 27, 2026: “If you read the Times, you think we’re doing poorly [in Iran]. It’s so — It’s almost treasonous.” [Remarks]
March 15, 2026: “The story was knowingly FAKE and, in a certain way, you can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!” [Truth Social]
December 9, 2025: “I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.’” [Truth Social]
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters
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