A Journalist’s Apology—Only to Be Read if Donald Trump Wins the Presidency | Opinion

I’m here this morning to declare my undying love, support, and loyalty to former (and possibly future) President Donald Trump.

I hope he’s listening and that he will forgive my earlier transgressions in the form of columns that I have written that showcase his venal nature, his weakness of mind, his lack of character, and his racist tendencies. Like Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), his own vice-presidential pick, I didn’t mean it, and if I did, I have now learned better.

Where did I obtain my newfound wisdom, you ask?

It is through fear that I have reached enlightenment.

Dear Leader Donald Trump has made many threats against the media. He dubbed us the “enemy of the people,” many years ago, during his first successful run for resident.

In just the last few days he has declared that the news must be “shaped up,” and that the people covering him are “monsters,” and “horrible, horrible, dishonest people.”

I have been one of these “horrible, horrible, dishonest people.” I have written what I know to be true with regularity and with as much vigor as I can muster.

It’s one thing to be “horrible, horrible, and dishonest” in a republic, with the rule of law and freedom of speech and the press guaranteed. It’s quite another to try to make a living through a mixture of your keyboard and your limited insight in an authoritarian system. Ask the journalists of Turkey, Russia, China, Azerbaijan, Iran, and many, many other places—if you can reach them in prison or with a Ouija board.

Many journalists around the world are brave people. They go to prison, not just to protect their sources—as happens occasionally in the United States—but to protect the truth itself. They are beaten, they are tortured, they are raped, they are shot, hanged, and starved. At best, they find themselves out of work and unemployable.

I’m not that brave, and not just because of my children. I’m just not that physically courageous. Prison scares me, the thought of torture makes my heart race. The idea of bankruptcy and hunger brings on the night sweats.

And it’s not so crazy to imagine an America where these things happen to “enemies of the people” like me. It happens all the time. It happens in nice countries that slide slowly into authoritarianism. It happens when the wrong leader comes into power for a first or second time.

During Trump’s first term, freedom of the press in the United States lurched downward, as did trust in media. After all, the guy at the top was putting down the very idea of the media with every second breath. When the commander-in-chief, however buffoonish he may be, keeps attacking an institution, it’s bound to have an effect.

While things improved somewhat under President Joe Biden, Tuesday will give an indication of where we’re going next.

If Trump returns to the White House, I—and most of my friends—could be in real trouble. There is already a playbook on how to bring the press to its knees while living a “democratic” lie. Look at Hungary and Viktor Orban. Certainly, the leading lights of U.S. conservatism do.

Even without arresting anyone, governments are immensely powerful entities. The Federal Communications Commission regulates the internet and who has the right to do what with it. It also controls the broadcast spectrum. The Federal Trade Commission regulates the mergers that all these enormous media companies are constantly undergoing, as well as many, many other orders of business your average corporation or tycoon must conduct every day.

And that’s not to mention the government contracts that mean so much to so many of the super-rich.

It’s like any other protection racket. “It would be a shame, Mr. Bezos, if something were to happen to that lovely cloud services contract you’re about to sign…”

Just the possibility of such a threat can have a chilling effect on little things like endorsements in presidential elections, regardless of what’s said or written.

In an ever-shrinking media landscape, there are fewer and fewer companies—owned by even fewer people—that need to be squeezed, and most of them are harder and harder up for cash.

What are the chances these dire scenarios play out? Well, it depends on whether one can trust the word of Donald Trump. In most cases, I wouldn’t. He’s the man who brought the world Trump University and manipulated the value of his businesses and properties to get loans.

But somehow, when Trump vows revenge—as he has many times—I believe him. It’s not just that vengeance feels good and we’re likely to elect the world’s largest id, it’s that having fewer prying eyes benefits evil deeds. And evil deeds are what we can expect as Trump and his true-believing cronies begin to rebuild the government in their leader’s corrupt image.

The sad fact is that I like to eat—even more I like to stay out of jail. So, as Winston Smith once said through George Orwell’s mediation in 1984:

“Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Donald Trump”

Jason Fields is a deputy opinion editor at Newsweek.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.