Donald Trump fighting with the media is nothing new. Ten years ago, in his first campaign for president – when he was visibly younger, fitter and quicker on his feet – Trump skilfully turned the media into just another political adversary seeking to do down his political movement.

This let Trump reframe efforts to hold him accountable as hit jobs. The media revealed his comments about women – “grab ‘em by the p***y” – his chequered financial past, his promises of charitable giving that never manifested, and more. By saying the “fake news media” had an agenda against him, Trump blunted the impact of those attacks, helping propel him into the presidency.

So on one level, a fight between the President and the mainstream media is familiar territory. Over the weekend, Trump surprised even his own White House team – his chief of staff Susie Wiles was reportedly out of town – by banning three outlets from the White House. Trump declared that reporters from CNN, MS Now (until recently known as MSNBC), and would be shut out until further notice.

Trump has faced a series of failures and embarrassments in recent weeks: the war in the Middle East he started under the promise it would last a mere “two weeks” is out of control. The cost of living crisis he promised to end is only getting worse. The governor he appointed to lead the Federal Reserve increased interest rates, against his express wishes. Canada, which Trump is trying to force into closer co-operation with the USA, is instead cosying up to the European Union. His plan to slash eligibility for mail-in voting in the midterms has collapsed.

It is typical of Trump, when things aren’t going his way, to lash out. Sometimes, this is savvy: Trump’s followers have historically liked it when he gets into a fight with the mainstream media, and at the moment they are far less enthusiastic about Trump than once they were. On paper, this could be an effort to pick a fight that would cheer up the Maga base.

But if this is a calculated effort, the logic is hard to see. Trump didn’t lay any groundwork for his draconian move, and he didn’t even prepare his team for it. The outlets he has chosen to ban are an odd selection: , in particular, is widely read by political professionals in DC, including those working for the White House. It is hardly a resistance liberal outlet: its owner has expressed support for Trump on more than one occasion.

in recent days published a bombshell report suggesting Trump’s Department of War had failed to disclose the deaths of soldiers in the conflict against Iran, but it hasn’t been banned. Any attempt to find a tactical plan behind Trump’s actions seems doomed.

Trump looks like he has picked this fight impulsively, and he has done it in about the silliest way possible. As president, Trump is restricted by the First Amendment, which guarantees that the federal government will do nothing to abridge the freedom of the press.

The President unilaterally banning three media outlets from the White House – which belongs to the US people, not him – is a textbook example of a First Amendment violation.

Trump has made the case against himself even easier to prove by explicitly saying the bans are because he is unhappy with the outlets’ coverage of him, meaning it is clearly a freedom of expression issue. “Maybe they can get better and we’d like to have them in,” Trump said, surely sealing the case against him.

The reality is Trump’s latest attack on the media doesn’t look like the work of a one-time master of media manipulation. It looks like the petulant outburst of a man who has lost all impulse control, and is lashing out as his presidency tanks.

Trump has overstepped in his attacks on the media before: in his first presidential race, he appeared to mock the movements of a disabled reporter, later claiming he had never met the man and was unaware of his disability. During his second term, Trump has gutted America’s publicly funded media at home and abroad, leading to thousands of journalists working to bring news to people in autocratic regimes losing their jobs.

Those actions, though, didn’t run against the Constitution. This one does, and in ways even his all-too-friendly Supreme Court will find difficult to ignore. In his desperate search for a fight he can win, Trump has almost guaranteed that he’ll strike out again. The flailing President has picked a fight with the media he’s almost certainly going to lose. Sad!

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