President Donald Trump launched a lengthy tirade against The New York Times on Thursday, accusing the newspaper of being “seditious” after its editorial board published a piece titled “The U.S. Military Was Losing Its Edge. After Iran, Everyone Knows It.” During his rant, Trump continued to insist that Iranian forces had been “militarily decapitated” before accusing both the Times and CNN of reporting that Iran was winning the war.
“And yet I read in The New York Times, I see it on that stupid CNN, which I only watch because you have to watch a little bit of the enemy,” Trump said. “So I watch it for a very short period. But you have to, you know, you have to be smart. And if you see CNN, you’d think they’re winning the war. If you read The New York Times, it’s actually seditious in my opinion. You read The New York Times, you actually think they’re winning the war.”
It is unclear which specific CNN report the president was referencing. As for the Times piece, it argued, among other things, that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz was the linchpin in the conflict thus far, and that the United States’ trillion-dollar military was “ineffective against cheaper, mass-produced weapons,” such as Iran’s vast drone supply. “But the problem is bigger than any single commander-in-chief. The United States has left itself unprepared for modern war,” the Times wrote.
What the NYT did not do in its article was “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States,” which is how seditious conspiracy is defined under 18 U.S. Code § 2384. The last people convicted of seditious conspiracy in the U.S. were leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Trump pardoned all those convicted in connection with the insurrection on his first day back in office.
