Marc Elrich and Donald Trump Have a Lot in Common
Yesterday, President Trump threatened ABC journalist John Lyons for asking questions about the President's finances, telling him to "be quiet" and warning that he would raise the matter with the Australian Prime Minister. In the same appearance, Trump threatened he might "go after" ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl for a line of reporting he called "hate speech." Also Tuesday, President Trump filed a massive defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, not for a particular article but for its broader coverage.
Trump's pattern of favoring friendly media while sidelining critical voices is at least transparent. Yesterday was a robust day for it, but not particularly surprising.
What is surprising is that here in Montgomery County, County Executive Mark Elrich follows the same script. Today his Public Information Office denied my request to attend his weekly media briefings without any explanation. His decision cannot be based on any policy or objective standard. Separately, his office has confirmed there are no written rules at all. The exclusion was personal, opaque, and absolute.
Our publication has been a steady critic of Elrich for nearly three years, questioning his record and priorities, often through satire and parody, at every turn. That is what a free press is supposed to do—challenge those in power, not flatter them. How does Elrich react? By barring access altogether. It is retribution, plain and simple, designed to silence dissent and avoid uncomfortable questions.
Satirical takes on Marc Elrich’s policies, like this one about affordable housing, have earned The Montgonion a ban from the press pool.
The similarities to Trump are unmistakable. Trump tries to silence reporters he dislikes; Elrich blocks them from the room. Trump makes up standards on the fly; Elrich has none at all and acts on whim. Both use their positions to control who gets to ask questions and who does not, reducing transparency and eroding public trust.
This is not about ideology. One is a self-styled progressive Democrat, the other a populist Republican. But in practice, they share the same disdain for accountability. By excluding independent journalists without rules or rationale, Elrich has made himself indistinguishable from the very figure he and his supporters so bitterly condemn
A government that silences critics is not progressive or conservative, it is simply undemocratic. Americans have grown so used to calling their political opponents “fascist” that the word has lost meaning. Republicans slap it on Democrats, Democrats slap it on Republicans, and in the end, it lands like background noise. But what Elrich is doing locally, like what Trump is doing on the national stage, is not just partisan hardball. It is the textbook suppression of dissent and manipulation of information—behavior that, stripped of its partisan wrapper, looks very much like the thing both sides claim to abhor.
