Former president Donald Trump is suing George Stephanopoulos and ABC News for defamation—a sign that his long-proclaimed hostility to media may grow even more aggressive and toxic between now and the election. Trump’s antagonism toward the media isn’t exactly new territory. He’s called the press “the enemy of the people” for years, famously mocked a reporter’s physical disability from the campaign stage in 2016, rants about the “fake news” and “dishonest press,” and has attacked reporters by name at rallies. His latest salvo is a sign that as the general election creeps closer, he’ll do everything he can to try to scare reporters into thinking twice about how they cover him. “It’s a bully tactic: ‘This is what will happen to you if you say something against me,’” Stephanie Grisham told me. “It says, ‘If I sued George Stephanopoulos, I’ll sue the little guy too.’”

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