Journalistic freedom may be in real trouble if former president Donald Trump is elected president in 2024 because it’s being reported that plans to escalate his war against the press if he returns to the White House, said an unnamed source in an interview with RollingStone.

Citing Rolling Stone, Raw Story notes this creepy quote:

“Donald Trump ended his pre-midterm rally blitz in disgusting fashion, calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ‘an animal,’ championing the death penalty, and giddily imagining the prison rape of the journalist who reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The rally on Monday wasn’t the first time Trump imagined journalists being raped in prison. He laid out the same fantasy at a rally in Texas last month, saying the reporter would give up the identity of the leaker as soon as thy realize they are ‘going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly.’ The audience burst out in laughter, just as they did Monday night in Ohio.”

Shortly after Midnight on Election Day Trump said he planned to make “a very big announcement,” at Mar-a-Lago next Tuesday. Axios is reporting that Trump’s team is eyeing November 14 as the time when Trump will announce his intentions to run.

“This year, as Trump has privately strategized about what a second term, potentially starting in 2025, could look like, he’s begun occasionally soliciticing ideas from conservative allies for how the U.S. government and Justice Department could go about turning his desires — for brutally imprisoning significant numbers of reporters — into reality,” RollingStone reports. “Several months ago, the former president briefly asked a small gathering of his allies and at least one of his attorneys about what would have to be done to make that authoritarian, First Amendment-shredding vision a norm, according to a source who was present.”

For many of us as journalists, our life’s work is dedicated to keeping Americans informed about crucial issues of the day. Including a hopeful, would-be dictator who wants to destroy the First Amendment. While it is true that the majority of the mainstream media is corporate-owned (which is, in itself another tragedy) there are those of us who squeak under the barbed wire to provide both sides of a story.

Trump noted that other countries are known to imprison journalists, and apparently he thinks this is fine.

“The other countries here are un-free authoritarian states, the kind for which Trump has long showed admiration. North Korea does not tolerate free expression. China and Russia are well known for jailing journalists. Viktor Orban, the Trump-endorsed autocratic ruler of Hungary, has been targeting reporters, as well. Trump has repeatedly made clear he wants to reshape America into a similarly brutal fascist state,” Rolling Stone reports. “Trump hasn’t just recently started wondering about how he might be able to jail journalists should he reclaim the White House in 2024. He was wondering about it almost immediately upon arriving there for the first time as well. The New York Times reported in 2017 that less than a month after Trump took office, he griped to then-FBI Director James Comey about leaks to the media, and told Comey he should consider imprisoning journalists who publish classified information.”

In 2018’s midterm elections, Trump was full of praise for Republican Greg Gianforte, who “body slammed” reporter Ben Jacobs. During a campaign rally congratulated Gianforte saying “he’s my guy.”

“He’s a great guy, tough cookie.”

I might be a small fish in the journalism pool but I’m glad I live in Central America right now. But I’m scared for any journalists forced to deal with a potential Trump presidency all over again. My heart goes out to them. Trump is pure evil and will stop at nothing to get his wishes.

Thought I’d just drop this clip in here to remind folks of this ugly incident.