WASHINGTON DC

DONALD TRUMP’S ANNOUNCEMENT of a range of tariffs on imports from around the world could mean that news reports by foreign correspondents from the United States could be cut back by whatever percentage the tariff is on the particular country they come from.

“This could see reporters being cut by ten, twenty, thirty per cent or even more, as they report from America,” insists Rob Whine, a specialist in media studies at the University of Unforeseen Consequences in Northern Canada. “You could imagine the USA cutting reporters when they don’t like what they’re saying, and saying that it’s a tariff on the import of that particular foreign news organisation. Trump wants America to dominate. What better way to dominate foreign reportage than something like this.”