Donald Trump Calls The Media ‘The Enemy Of The American People’

President Donald Trump vilified the press again Friday, tweeting that the media are “the enemy of the American people” and specifically calling out several major news organizations.

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) 17 лютого 2017 р.

Earlier, Trump tweeted and then quickly deleted a slightly different version of the tweet. The revised version includes mentions of ABC and CBS in addition to the other news outlets. All of these outlets have reported on significant controversies involving Trump and his administration, including claims that his team communicated with Russian officials throughout the presidential campaign.

The White House didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Trump’s tweet drew swift criticism from reporters:

I would hope that our leaders would never believe that any American desires to make another American an enemy. Let's dial it back.

— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) 17 лютого 2017 р.

Dangerous yes, unprecedented no. John Adams jailed journalists for sedition. https://t.co/CGvXtWznUU

— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) 17 лютого 2017 р.

On Wednesday the WH called the media the "opposition party."

Today it is the "enemy of the American people."

What will tomorrow bring?

— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) 17 лютого 2017 р.

"Enemy of the people"

Boy, that's definitely in no way fascist-sounding! https://t.co/y1niD7c4Wd

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) 17 лютого 2017 р.

And NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss pointed out how Trump’s rhetoric echoed President Richard Nixon’s during the Watergate scandal:

On December 1972 tape, Nixon told Kissinger, “The press is the enemy, the establishment is the enemy, the professors are the enemy."

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) 17 лютого 2017 р.

Trump’s tweet came one day after he spent a major chunk of a meandering 77-minute press conference disparaging the press. He called the media “out of control” and “dishonest.” He also blamed what he called the “fake media” for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation, claiming reporters treated the former general “very unfairly.”

He also frequently attacks publications on his Twitter account and has claimed that polls showing negative ratings for him are “fake news.”

Mollie Reilly