Trump’s latest attacks on the press exude desperation

When you hate the mainstream press as much as Donald Trump does, nothing gets in the way of the punishment fantasy.

Not court rulings. Not public opinion. Not even the dreadful consequence of less media coverage.

And certainly not any awareness of how the first amendment is supposed to function in American democracy.

This week, his revenge tour took yet another turn.

He barred one of his most disfavored media organizations – Politico – from boarding Air Force One, where it was supposed to provide “pool coverage” to the rest of the press corps as Trump traveled to Nebraska for a campaign stop on Monday afternoon.

That move was met with a strong show of solidarity by several media outlets, who decided not to fill the Politico spot.

And the White House was defiantly delusional, claiming that Trump will “continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press”.

This latest chapter came with the usual blast of venom at the mainstream media, though not specifically aimed at Politico.

“The New York Times and many other Artificial Media Outlets should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country,” he posted on Truth Social.

The episode follows Trump’s effort in mid-September to ban Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House. Those organizations quickly sued, charging that Trump’s action was unconstitutional.

Trump-appointed judge Timothy Kelly came down on the side of the media, issuing a temporary restraining order that ordered the White House to reinstate the press badges that had been taken away.

And since then, CNN has been kept off Air Force One repeatedly, using the rationale that access to the White House is one thing, but access to the president’s plane is another.

“The law is absolutely clear,” Ted Boutrous, the first amendment lawyer who is representing the three news organizations said in a statement. “The harm to our clients, the first amendment and the public as a whole is profound.”

The Trump administration’s position is that traveling with the president is a privilege not a right.

The fight is not over, since Kelly will conduct a hearing later this week over the media outlets’ request for a preliminary injunction – a stopgap measure to protect press access in advance of a possible trial.

Trump, of course, has been picking fights with individual journalists and entire news outlets for years. At this very moment, there are court fights involving the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Disney, which owns ABC News and a number of local ABC affiliates.

So far, there’s been a rare display of support among news organizations that are normally each other’s competition. Columbia Journalism Review called it “a striking and heartening show of solidarity from the White House Press Corps”.

When the three outlets were kicked out of the White House last month, the other networks in the press pool decided not to replace CNN in the rotation, thus suspending coverage for a time.

Peter Baker of the New York Times noted that for the first time in his 30 years covering the White House, “the president will not have a network TV camera covering his everyday official actions and travels”.

What’s more, about 50 media organizations backed up the lawsuit by the three who had been singled out by filing an amicus brief.

It’s hard to understand exactly how less coverage and this constant squabbling benefits Trump, but apparently, he is making a different calculation.

His anti-press actions get a lot of attention, which is the very oxygen he requires to breathe. It doesn’t matter that much of the attention is negative.

Meanwhile, he has entered a phase of saying and doing ever more outrageous things, like his statement this week at a rally that his war in Iran was necessary to protect the world. Trump appeared to suggest that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego if it develops a nuclear weapon which prompted California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, to call the president “deranged and dangerous”.

Trump exudes a sense of desperation these days, with the midterm elections only weeks away and his approval ratings underwater.

His war against the press is something of a reflex for him – it’s what comes naturally, especially when he doesn’t like the shape of reality.

The press corps’ newfound solidarity is encouraging. It’s been a long time coming from a group that, in the past, has responded to this president’s constant abuse with deference and dinner invitations.

Trump seems to invent ugly new variations on his press-bashing theme almost every day.

Standing together will be a necessity in the weeks and months ahead.

• Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture