Trump called the news media an ‘enemy of the American People.’

Here’s a history of the term.

President Trump is not known for his subtlety. But even by this standard, his tweet Friday night was extreme. Trump called the news media “the enemy of the American People.”

The New York Times, which among others was called out specifically, labeled it “a striking escalation” from a leader who “routinely castigates journalists.”

Gabriel Sherman, national affairs editor at New York magazine, described it as “full-on dictator speak.”

They’re not being pedantic.

Enemy of the people is a phrase “typically used by leaders to refer to hostile foreign governments or subversive organizations,” the New York Times wrote. “It also echoed the language of autocrats who seek to minimize dissent.”

Where did the expression come from? In its original incarnation, enemy of the people wasn’t code for “enemy of my regime.” In one of its earliest uses, the phrase was used to describe a leader himself — Nero. The Roman ruler was a disastrous emperor.

Most famously, Henrik Ibsen wrote an 1882 play called “An Enemy of the People.” It features a doctor who’s almost run out of town because of an article he’s written bashing the government.

Adolf Hitler was allegedly an Ibsen fan. (Some historians say they believe that he read the plays as prophecy of the Third Reich.) He reportedly read “An Enemy of the People” closely, even weaving some key lines into speeches.

Around the same time, leaders of the Soviet Union were transforming enemy of the people into a major tool for oppression and silencing enemies.

“For both Lenin and Stalin, journalists and intellectuals who didn’t share their point of view were among the most hated enemies,” University of Washington professor Serhiy Yekelchyk told VOA. “In attacking them, both appealed to the people.”

Today, enemy of the people is still deployed. But mostly, you hear it from dictators. (Heads of former Soviet countries are particularly fond of the construction. Old dog, new tricks, etc.) It’s never before been uttered by the leader of the free world. One more way in which Trump’s presidency truly is unprecedented in U.S. history.

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