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.”
