On the attack: Trump's media response in Abrego Garcia story is notably vigorous

NEW YORK — Responding to coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation, the Trump administration has called journalists ''despicable,'' questioned CNN's patriotism, scolded Fox News and even admitted to a mistake — in admitting to a mistake in the first place.

The vigorous reaction was noteworthy even in service to a president known for never backing down and a hostility toward the press. ''The song is the same,'' said former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, ''but the volume is a lot louder.''

President Donald Trump has fought the press on several fronts since returning to office in January. His team is battling The Associated Press in court over White House access, has sought to close Voice of America and launched FCC investigations into ABC News, CBS News, PBS and NPR, among others.

In the Abrego Garcia case, the White House took a situation that may have knocked predecessors on their heels and used it as an opportunity.

The 29-year-old Salvadoran national has lived in the United States for 14 years, married and is raising three children, and a judge shielded him from deportation in the first Trump term. In what Justice Department officials called an ''administrative error,'' he was sent last month to a Salvadoran prison. His case has come to symbolize concerns over whether people are being expelled legally.

'I have to correct you on every single thing that you said'

Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller wasn't interested in those questions during an interview with Fox News' Bill Hemmer. ''I hate to do it, Bill, but I have to correct you on every single thing that you said, because it was all wrong,'' Miller said, interpreting a U.S. Supreme Court order that the administration facilitate Abrego Garcia's return as a victory.

Similarly, Trump said that people at CNN ''hate our country'' and objected when the network's Kaitlan Collins asked about Abrego Garcia in an Oval Office news conference.

''Why don't you just say, ‘Isn't it wonderful that we're keeping criminals out of our country?'' Trump responded. ''Why can't you say that? Why do you go over and over — and that's why nobody watches you anymore, you know. You have no credibility.''

From the briefing room, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said ''outrage'' about the case by Democrats and the media "has been nothing short of despicable.

''Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would have thought we had deported a candidate for Father of the Year,'' she said. She called Abrego Garcia ''an illegal alien MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country.'' Abrego Garcia has denied being part of the El Salvadoran gang.

To Trump's team, calling it an ‘administrative error' was an error

She later told Fox News that the official who labeled Abrego Garcia's deportation an ''administrative error'' was himself mistaken. The immigrant, she promised, wouldn't be returning to his old life in the United States.

Trump and his team are banking on his immigration stance being among his most popular, and that many of his followers dislike journalists, said Sean Spicer, White House press secretary during the president's first term.

''If the roles were reversed and the Trump administration had been referring to Abrego Garcia as a ‘Maryland family man,' the media would have gone nuts claiming he was spreading misinformation,'' Spicer said in an interview.

Matt Margolis, a columnist for PJMedia, told The Associated Press that ''when the media won't report the facts, it's on the Trump administration to bring the facts directly to the public, and I think they've done so effectively. That's why he has solid approval ratings on immigration. The public knows the media is lying — and they know Trump isn't.''

Nonetheless, Abrego Garcia put a human face to an issue and an effort frequently happening in the shadows. Recognizing the potency of government by anecdote, the administration produced its own face — inviting Patty Morin to meet Trump in the White House and address reporters. The Maryland woman's daughter, Rachel, was raped and killed in 2023 and a jury on April 14 convicted an immigrant from El Salvador in the U.S. illegally, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, of the crime.

Trump aide Steven Cheung called it a ''media outrage'' that CNN and MSNBC did not carry ''angel mom'' Patty Morin's recounting of the tragedy live on the air. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr criticized the same two networks for ''news distortion'' in their coverage of Abrego Garcia.

A conservative media watchdog, the Media Research Center, produced a report that Martinez-Hernandez's trial received 12 seconds of coverage on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening newscasts. The Abrego Garcia case got 143 minutes in total on the broadcasts between April 1 and 23, enabling them to ''berate'' the Trump administration, they said.

''Disgusting,'' Donald Trump Jr. said in a social media posting.

The Morin murder trial did receive extensive local news coverage. Nationally, ABC News covered the case in 2024 when Martinez-Henderson was arrested and when Morin's brother spoke before the Republican national convention.

What is the case about, and what does Trump want it to be about?

The tactic — don't look here, look there! — is familiar in politics and propaganda, said Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive who is now dean of the Hofstra University school of communication.

''It seems to me that what the White House would like the Abrego Garcia case to be about is whether this individual should be in the United States,'' Lukasiewicz said. ''Their clear view is that he should not, and that should be the story. From a news perspective, that's not what the story is about. The story is about the absence of due process.''

Attacking the news media is also not unique or new; ask your grandparents who former Vice President Spiro Agnew was referring to when he coined the phrase ''nattering nabobs of negativism.'' Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has bitterly denounced the press for a series of tough stories on his leadership.

Yet the Abrego Garcia case is worth examining; the media strategy followed by the White House is likely to be repeated, especially since the president has a strong cadre of loyalists to follow his lead, said Sesno, professor at George Washington University's school of media and public affairs.

''Does any of this ever get old?'' he asked. ''That is the question.''

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social