Simply someday after calling for an investigation into retiring Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, Donald Trump is claiming he’s a champion of the free press.
“In order to Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press,” Trump informed Fox Information on Monday. He spoke about his latest assembly with MSNBC morning information hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to kiss the ring.
“I expect this will take place with others in the media,” Trump said. “Even those that have been extremely hostile.”
He laughably claimed that he has “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press.”
This is identical Trump who has declared warfare on the free press for years.
After turning into president in 2017, Trump referred to as the press the “enemy of the American people.” His persevering with assaults on reporting that he doesn’t like or he feels paints him negatively has been endless since then.
In accordance with the worldwide nonprofit Reporters With out Borders, Trump verbally attacked the media not less than 108 instances within the run-up to the 2024 election.
In 2020, the Unbiased counted Trump’s use of the time period “fake news” to explain journalists or media shops practically 2,000 instances.
Trump has filed a number of lawsuits towards media shops for protection he doesn’t like, together with a $1.5 billion lawsuit towards 20 media shops for a tabulation mistake in reporting about his Reality Social platform. There was additionally a $10 billion lawsuit towards CBS and “60 Minutes” for what he referred to as misleading enhancing of an interview the information outlet aired with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has referred to as for an investigation into NBC Information and its subsidiary MSNBC (in addition to the Democratic Nationwide Committee) for “treason.” In November of 2022, Trump referred to as for the imprisonment of a journalist who ran a leaked Supreme Courtroom early draft opinion of the Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group. He has referred to as reporters “the enemy of the people” numerous instances—together with to their face.
However now, regardless of his yearslong historical past of attacking, threatening, and suing the media, he’s all of a sudden an enormous fan of the press. We’ll see how lengthy that lasts.
