Foreign Journalists Get Pressure From Trump, Bomberang For US Journalists

US President Donald Trump was interviewed by a journalist. (doc The Trump White House-whitehouse.gov)

JAKARTA - The moment US President Donald Trump was angry with Australian reporters was considered to be the beginning of a new chapter of foreign journalists in the US under pressure from the US Government.

At the time, John Lyons of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) asked Trump about his personal business deal while serving as US President, as well as how much he has had since January 2025 to return to the White House.

Lyons asked during Trump's state visit to England. Trump then got angry with the reporter and admitted that he would tell Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about Lyons' behavior.

"In my opinion, you are very detrimental to Australia right now, and they want to work with me," Trump told Lyons earlier this week, quoted by AFP.

"Your leader will come to see me soon. I will tell him about you. You give him a very bad impression," Trump continued.

The tension then became a byword among the media in Washington.

A foreign correspondent, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump's hostility to the media was not only to foreign journalists.

"When Trump insults a journalist, he doesn't care whether journalists are foreigners or not," the correspondent said.

What is even more worrying about the correspondent since the Lyons incident, the US Government plans to cut Visa time for foreign journalists who previously spent five years to 240 days can be extended.

However, unlike Chinese media, the journalist's visa is only 90 days.

"How can I rent an apartment? Get a driver's license? Beat my kids on a 240-day visa?" the correspondent wondered, adding that building a network of sources in the US took time.

With the US Government's plan to cut visas for foreign journalists, it is considered a form of pressure from the White House.

"This is going to be a nightmare," the correspondent said.

Another journalist, a correspondent for a European media, said that "uncertainty of foreign journalists is not the main target of this government [Trum]," but "is part of a very worrying overview."

The European correspondent added that the White House prefers foreign journalists "who are committed to the news or simply censor themselves to normalize what's happening."

The US Journalism Protection Committee, totaling Jacobsen, said in a statement that what foreign correspondents experienced was a form of pressure to comply.

"A shortened amount of time for visa-I extension creates a framework for possible editorial sensors where the Trump administration can exchange access for compliance in reporting," Jacobsen said.

Washington-based president of the National Press Club, Mike Balsamo, agrees with Jacobsen's view. He added that such actions could trigger retaliation against US journalists working abroad.

"Free press does not stop at the American border. The press relies on a correspondent who can work here without fear of running out of time," wrote Balsamo on X.

Although the correspondents interviewed for the news did not say there was certain hostility from the White House, they showed that political figures in Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement did not hesitate to target foreign journalists.

Donald Trump's former US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell recently called for the revocation of a journalist's visa from German television channel ZDF.

"This radical Left German continues to call for violence against people who politically disagree with him," Grenell said in X.

Grenell criticized the journalist's interview with influential White House adviser Stephen Miller.

"He pretended to be a journalist in Washington, DC. The visa must be revoked. There is no place in America for incitement like this," Grenell continued.