Margaret Sullivan

Jeanine Pirro, who hasn’t held a government legal job in decades, does have a key qualification: relentless loyalty to the president

The revolving door between the Trump administration and rightwing Fox News took another wild spin this week, as America’s TV-obsessed president tapped Jeanine Pirro for a prominent legal post: top federal prosecutor for Washington DC.

Pirro is unqualified, perhaps even more so than was her former Fox colleague Pete Hegseth when he was named Trump’s defense secretary a few months ago. In that crucial position, Hegseth has been a dangerous embarrassment, as his shockingly inappropriate communications have exposed national security secrets to the world.

What has happened with 60 Minutes is a high-octane version of what’s happening everywhere in Trump 2.0

There have been so many red alerts for press freedom in the United States over the past few months that it can be hard to know which ones really matter.

The one at CBS’s 60 Minutes really matters.

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

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Trump’s anti-media diatribes are part of the authoritarian playbook. Congress must reject his planned cuts

It was entirely predictable that Donald Trump would go after public media in America. Harming the reality-based press – in every form, whether public or private – is a central part of his playbook for controlling the political narrative as he moves the country toward an authoritarian model of government.

For Trump, the message is all, and anything that gets in the way should be portrayed as an evil to society and stamped out.