Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking a lot of late about Donald Trump and his infamous Twitter meltdowns—trying to deduce exactly what he’s up to regarding his constant, and seemingly never-ending, attacks on the press. The more that Trump has pushed the narrative that all unfavorable reportage of his regime is “fake news,” the more I’ve noticed a leitmotif. Trump, it seems, is using Twitter the way despotic politicians have manipulated the media throughout the past century when they needed a comfortable vessel for their lies.

Just travel back to Weimar Germany, where during his ascent to power in 1920, Adolf Hitler purchased outright a newspaper called The Volkischer Beobachter, which would grow its circulation to more than 1 million readers in the 40s as it became the organ of the National Socialist regime. The Beobachter, as it was often called, facilitated the Nazis’ revolting propaganda and culture of genocidal hatred. It allowed Hitler and Goebbels the opportunity to publish countless fake news stories about adversarial countries, about Jews, and, indeed, the press.

In some ways, Hitler set an early precedent for how to propagate fake news (or call real news “fake”) at the dawn of the information age. Kim Jong Il would control state media to his advantage much the same way. Saddam Hussein and his sons “owned” a dozen newspapers in Iraq, controlling virtually everything that was printed, and what was not. Vladimir Putin manipulates the press in Russia. (He also allegedly has journalists killed.)

Freedom of the press is a sacrosanct right of Western democracies. But Trump, who has upended so much of what we believe in, has proved that the First Amendment is no longer enough to keep honest reporting unmolested. Indeed, were Hitler or Saddam to operate in our modern times, God forbid, they wouldn’t need to go through the hassle of running a state organ or Beobachter news outlet. They could simply open up their smartphones, sign up for a Twitter account, and start tweeting lies 140 characters at a time, both pushing their own agenda and decrying as false anything that they disagreed with.

Most Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, would probably agree that the Founding Fathers got most things right—except, of course, slavery, women’s rights, and the electoral college, to name a few pretty big missteps—in the early days of the Republic. After all, we enjoy freedom of speech; a balanced Supreme Court; and a free press—all of which generally countermand our differences over the right to bear arms, the role of religion in schools, and other matters. Sure, some people might not agree with Fox News’s perspective, and others might think that The New York Times is too liberal, but few believe that the press should not be a part of the America we live in today. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in a 1786 letter, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

Presidents, generals, judges, and officers have all reiterated the importance of this notion, seemingly cognizant that a shackled institution destroys liberty and facilitates authoritarianism. In fact, besides Nixon, who repeatedly lamented behind closed doors, “The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy,” there has never been a sitting president who has attacked the media so vehemently, and with such vitriol, as Trump.

Nearly 50 days into his presidency, theories abound regarding the origin of Trump’s attacks. Some have posited that Trump, who has been a fixture of the tabloid press for decades, felt that his stunning victory somehow confirmed what he believed to be decades of unfair and inaccurate coverage about himself. That’s entirely possible. Or, as some others have surmised, Trump continually attacks the press to deflect from his other controversies. Chuck Todd recently noted on Meet the Press, for instance, that Trump habitually goes after the Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and other outlets shortly after salacious and damning stories about his campaign’s involvement with Russia lands like a bull’s eye in the news cycle. (Trump has of course referred to reports connecting his campaign to Russia as “fake news.“) Others, too, suggest that Trump’s ego is truly bruised each time a negative story comes out about him; or that he doesn’t know how to express himself beyond the capacity of a child on a playground, calling someone a stupid poopie-head.