President Donald Trump on Thursday continued stewing over the media coverage of his presidency, saying that “Fake News” was “going all out in order to demean and denigrate!”
The Fake News Is going all out in order to demean and denigrate! Such hatred!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
The attack came after a day of threats to revoke the licenses of television stations whose coverage he deems unfair.
With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017
In the Oval Office Wednesday, seated next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump said “it’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write.”
“People should look into it,” he added.
While Trump’s attacks on the First Amendment are troubling, coming from the highest office in the land, but one telecommunications expert told TPM Wednesday that, “as a legal matter, it’s an empty threat.”
The President’s most recent spate of anger at the press seemingly began in response to an NBC News story, which cited three unnamed sources in the room, that the he had suggested increasing America’s nuclear arsenal nearly tenfold in a meeting with senior national security officials over the summer.
Trump said he “never discussed” such an increase to the arsenal, and accused NBC News and other outlets of inventing unnamed sources — though he himself is known to frequently give reporters information off-the-record.
The journalists who reported the story stood by it in the face of Trump’s attacks.
NBC News didn't report Trump "called for" more nucs. On the contrary, we reported Trump said he wanted more but no one took it as an order.
— Courtney Kube (@ckubeNBC) October 11, 2017
