Throughout the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump would bar media outlets with whom he disagreed from attending his rallies. During a December discussion with Sean Spicer (prior to becoming White House press secretary and fodder for Melissa McCarthy), Politico’s Jake Sherman asked if this tactic would be used by a Trump White House.

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“Look, there’s a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity,” Spicer told Sherman. “I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government. That is something you can’t ban an entity from. You know conservative, liberal, otherwise I think that is what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”
On Friday, the Trump administration took on the role of a dictatorship as described by their own press secretary.