Donald Trump just called the media 'the enemy of the American people'
In what is a terrifying and logical step, President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon called the U.S. media the enemy of the American people.
Trump hurled the accusation in a tweet that he then quickly deleted.
The tweet was widely noticed before being taken down.
Then he put it back up, but removed "SICK!" at the end and added ABC and CBS to the list.
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That's the tweet that was put back up. Here's the original.
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Since the election, Trump has been steadily building on the anti-media rhetoric that was central to his campaign messaging. On Thursday, Trump held a press conference in which he battled with various members of the press and complained about coverage of his presidency.
After the press conference, Trump's organization sent out an email survey asking people to respond with how they feel about the media. "Instead, you — the American people — are our last line of defense against the media’s hit jobs," one line in the email read.
Major news organizations — in particular the New York Times and Washington Post — have written numerous hard-hitting stories about Trump and his administration. Some of those reports led to the ouster of national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Trump has decried the leaks that have served as sources of these stories, hinting that he may direct the Justice Department to prioritize going after people in the government who are talking to journalists.
Friday's tweets are particularly worrisome as concern has already spread within the media that Trump is laying the groundwork for an aggressive and broad campaign targeting any journalists that report critically (or, perhaps, accurately) about him and his administration.
Trump's words recall similar sentiments from Nixon — who only said them behind closed doors.
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Enjoy your Presidents Day, everybody!
Topics Donald Trump
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
