Free press but not in the Trump government

Donald Trump has been ranting and raving against The New York Times and The Washington Post for so long it was hardly surprising that he has now ordered the whole of the federal government to cancel their online subscriptions to the two newspapers. Trump paticularly hates The Washington Post because it is owned by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon boss, who is a strong critic of the president. But it's tough for federal workers who rely on their individual department's subscriptions for these two papers to find out what the hell is going on in Washington and especially inside the White House. They will still be allowed to read The Wall Street Journal which is an excellent newspaper but very often the big political scoops seem to appear in The New York Times or The Washington Post. It's an extraordinary move by Trump hinting that he is so irritated by the leaks appearing in the papers that he wants them banned. As some US four-star general suggested today the subscription ban recalled the actions of Mussolini who hated newspapers and freedom of speech. Of course federal workers can still go out to their newsagent and buy a copy of either paper but will there also be a ban on bringing them into their place of work? "Excuse me Sir/Madam, can I check your bag to see if you have a copy of The New York Times or The Washington Post? I have orders to seize them and shred them." Trump must hope that everyone in government reads just the Washington Times wich is pretty pro-Donald or watches Fox News which he can rely on to get his views across. Being hated by Trump is not a good business objective. Bezos has had two blows to his business empire this week. First came the ban on The Washington Post subscription, then, under orders from the White House, the Pentagon gave a $10 billion contract to develop new digital computing technology at the defence department to Microsoft even though Amazon had been the favourite to win. That smacks of revenge, although I'm sure Microsoft will do a good job. But Trump could not face giving Amazon a juicy Pentagon contract while Bezos's paper is constantly criticising his presidency. I wonder how Bezos and The Washington Post will deal with these two blows. I suspect the sparks will fly. Bezos is not a brilliantly successful entrepeneur for nothing.