President Donald Trump continued his crusade against the “fake news media” in a tweet Friday afternoon, calling the press the “enemy of the American People.”
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
The comments come after Trump and his aides have attempted to blame the media for weeks of tumult within his administration. In a rambling press conference Thursday, Trump declared that the leaks are real and the “news is fake” after reports revealed that the President’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, spoke to Russia’s ambassador about sanctions before Trump was inaugurated. Trump defended Flynn as a “wonderful man” whom the press treated “very unfairly.”
In the wake of Flynn’s resignation, Trump said the “real scandal” was that classified information was leaked to the press. The President called the leaks very un-American.”
Trump has routinely attacked the media, but this latest salvo marks an alarming escalation of his feud with the press.
Trump deleted an earlier version of the tweet. The first draft failed to include ABC and CBS under the President’s “fake news” umbrella.
The tweet featured a new exclamation at the end, but a similar refrain of railing against the media.
In the wake of Flynn’s resignation, Trump said the “real scandal” was that classified information was leaked to the press. The President called the leaks “Very un-American.”
Is American the Fatherland or the Motherland? I think that’s the last jot that needs to be cleared up in order to complete Trump’s vision.
Never pick a fight with a man that buys pixels by the terabyte.
Can he be more blatant about his authoritarian aims? Well, maybe…anyone reading a statement like that from the president should be chilled to the bone, and furious. The media does fail in a lot of ways, but in no way is it the enemy of the people…it has been our salvation many times, and will need to be again this time.
I do fear for the health of the nation though, if enough people become convinced that the media is lying and believe their own facts (which are not real), we’re headed for a major showdown between reality and fantasy. And, honestly, I’m not sure which one will win in the end the way things are going.
Hmm. On Trump’s twitter feed, Little Green Charles Johnson takes him to task. Weird.