Since 2016 President Trump has lambasted journalists and anyone who criticizes him. During his political campaign, Trump resorted to negative and violent rhetoric to denounce anyone who criticized him, whether journalists, politicians, or protestors.

As President of the United States, Trump has resorted to lambasting anyone who criticizes him by sending out tweets. President Trump has even gone so far as to say that the media has treated him “unfairly.”

The thing that President Trump does not understand is that having the freedom of press provides the public and by definition, the press with the right to criticize and report on government officials. Having the right to publically protest, express and report news on officials is as American as apple pie.

Let’s go back to the year 1735 when German-born immigrant, John Peter Zenger, faced prosecution for seditious libel.

Zenger was put on trial for publishing news that defamed New York’s government officials calling them out for corruption and tyranny.

Zenger had emigrated to the United States at a young age and initiated a printing newspaper known as the Weekly Journal.

It was in Zenger's newspaper that the criticism of New York’s government council was published.

The New York officials were insulted by the criticism in Zenger’s newspaper, that they arrested and put Zenger on trial.

Colonial attorney, Andrew Hamilton, came to Zenger’s defense where he focused Zenger's defense on the freedom of expression.

For Hamilton, Zenger’s trial was not of a personal matter but a case that affected all of the freemen across the Thirteen colonies in mainland America.

Hamilton's concluded his defense by stating to the court and jury that, “[i]t is the cause of liberty. And I make no doubt but your upright conduct, this day, will not entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens; but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you, as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and, by impartial and uncorrupt verdict, have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our prosperity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right--the liberty of both of exposing and opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing truth.”

Andrew Hamilton echoed the idea of freedom of expression and press, these ideas had circulated in 16th-century Britain and had begun to circulate in the Thirteen Colonies.

Zenger was found not guilty and the Zenger trial is one of the oldest and most famous cases involving freedom of the press.

Fifty-six years later on December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified. In the Bill of Rights, our founding fathers placed and intended to protect our personal freedoms and liberties under the first 10 Amendment. And right at the top, the First Amendment protects and provides us with the freedom of Religion, Speech, and Press.

Next time President Trump verbally attacks journalists and anyone who criticizes him think back to Zenger’s trial and Andrew Hamilton’s defense.