'Wow': Observers horrified by 'scary' Trump brag showing he's following 'Putin's playbook'

Donald Trump over the weekend posted a graphic that alarmed numerous political observers.

Trump took to his own social media site, Truth Social, to post the graphic, which is called, "President Trump is reshaping the media." The image celebrates that NPR, Stephen Colbert, Jim Acosta, and others in the media are "gone," while noting that CNN and the FCC have both been "reformed" by the president.

That graphic sent shivers down the spines of some onlookers, who took to X to express their concern.

Republicans against Trump noted, "Trump posted an image claiming he is 'reshaping the media,'" to which political science professor Michael McFaul replied, "Wow. Scary. Reminds me of Putin's early years of reshaping Russian media."

WaPo media reporter Scott Nover chimed in, "latest Truth Social posts includes a series of boasts about how he’s 'reshaping the media.'"

Garry Kasparov, founder of Renew Democracy, also added, "Fascism doesn’t sneak up on you. It boasts in your face about war, attacking 'internal enemies' and the free press, taking total power, and tells you that you must embrace it, not fight it. Consolidating and purging media into loyal hands is Putin's playbook."

One popular news curator, @SkylineReport, also noted that "Trump just posted a graphic bragging that he’s 'reshaping the media.'"

They added, "It literally lists journalists pushed out, public broadcasters 'defunded,' layoffs at major outlets, and regulatory pressure as 'wins.' Read that again. A president openly celebrating the use of political power to punish critics and pressure the press. That’s not media criticism. That’s media capture — the playbook authoritarian leaders use to bend the information system toward themselves. And the most dangerous part? He’s not hiding it anymore."