President Donald Trump keeps demanding that journalists face arrest and prosecution for reporting that displeases him, and his purported standards for criminal sanctions are developing in bizarre ways over the course of his second term.

His war on the free press hit a new low on Monday when the president declared that unnamed persons at The New York Times “should be arrested” for reporting there were “empty seats” at his rally in Ohio, when instead, he claimed, the arena was “full to the brim.”

It feels crazy to need to write this, but journalists should not be arrested because the president doesn’t like the way they report on the sizes of his crowds. Trump’s declaration that they should demonstrates yet again his abhorrence of the First Amendment and the basic principles of free speech on which this country was founded.

And Trump’s statement mixes absurdity with its menace — not least because the Times report he cited actually described the president’s appearance in Alabama on Friday, not the event in Ohio on Saturday.

The slipshod authoritarianism of Trump’s Times attack

The New York Times published an article about Trump’s October 2 campaign rally in Mobile under the headline “In Alabama, Trump Relives His Glory Days (This Time With Some Empty Seats).” The report by Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh termed Mobile “the birthplace of the MAGA rally,” and contrasted the turnout Trump received at an August 2015 event early in his first presidential run to the lackluster crowd that came to see him that night.

“These days, Mr. Trump is in political trouble, even with members of his famously loyal base,” McCreesh reported. “The indoor arena that he spoke at on Friday was a fraction of the size of the football stadium he once spoke in — security concerns are such that he rarely speaks in outdoor venues anymore — and still the place was not full. Some upper sections were almost completely empty.”

The article featured a photo showing empty seats as Trump addressed the crowd on Friday.

The president lashed out at the Times on Monday, quoting from and denouncing McCreesh’s article — and calling for arrests — while misrepresenting or mixing up which rally that article had detailed.

“The Ohio Arena was already full to the brim — And yet these people were still trying to get in,” Trump claimed in a Truth Social post. “The New York Times said, ‘There were empty seats’ when, in fact, there were none, and thousands of people had to be turned away. The New York Times, and many other Artificial Media Outlets, should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country.”

“The Fake News New York Times ‘reported’ on my Great, PACKED Rally in Ohio that, ‘the place was not full. Some upper sections were almost completely empty,’” Trump wrote falsely in a second post. “In actuality, thousands of people were unable to get in. The Arena was totally MAXED OUT, including all upper sections.”

The president’s posts featured video and photos from in and outside the Ohio rally in an effort to disprove the Times report, which was about the Alabama rally. Notably, the Times article on the event in Ohio — authored by the Times’ Katie Rogers, who wrote she had been “covering Trump rallies, on and off, for almost a decade” — reported “several areas of an upper deck were empty by the time Mr. Trump finished speaking at a 4,500-capacity high school student activity center” and “attendees close to the stage were seated in neat rows” rather than the “old norm of standing room only.”

Trump positions what he claims are inaccurate statements about his rallies as part of a media conspiracy against the GOP. “My Rally crowds and enthusiasm are unbelievable!” he wrote on Tuesday. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it. We are flipping races all over the place. The Fake News knows it, but they don’t want to be truthful with their viewers. It’s all happening!”

Trump keeps demanding criminal punishment for reporting he dislikes

Trump and his administration have spent his second term engaged in a systematic assault on the free press, one that includes unhinged vitriol directed at journalists; lawsuits directed at news outlets that produce critical reporting; regulatory efforts to punish critical outlets and reward friendly media owners; cutting federal funding to some public media outlets and reducing the editorial independence of others, attempts to curtail the access of outlets that produce unfavorable reporting; and the use of the law enforcement apparatus against reporters.

Over the last two years, journalists have faced federal searches and seizures, investigations, and even arrest and prosecution over their reporting. Trump himself has routinely called for journalists to face such criminal punishment when they produce reporting he doesn’t like.

In April 2025, for instance, Trump called for an investigation into pollsters and the media outlets that employ them after surveys from the Times and Washington Post/ABC showed his actions were unpopular, alleging the outlets had been “looking for a negative result.”

“These people should be investigated for ELECTION FRAUD, and add in the FoxNews Pollster while you’re at it,” he wrote. “They are Negative Criminals who apologize to their subscribers and readers after I WIN ELECTIONS BIG, much bigger than their polls showed I would win, loose a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse.”

Trump has also accused news outlets and journalists of treasonous or nearly treasonous action at least 13 times since December, with the frequency and vehemence of such declarations increasing over time.

He has specifically described as “treasonous” outlets including the Times that reported the Iran war has left Iran in a strengthened position; unnamed “SCUM” reporting that the war reduced U.S. munitions stockpiles to a critical level; and The Washington Post for reporting that he is displeased with the performance of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters