What was originally an impromptu White House press conference intended to announce President Trump’s new selection for Secretary of Labor, quickly turned into a nearly 2 hour long marathon of slamming “fake news” reporters as Trump unloaded on the “out of control” press.
Trump opened his speech by mentioning recent events and accomplishments, such as the stellar performance of the stock market, and also addressed the “dishonesty” of press and the disservice they are doing to the American people.
“I’m here again to take my message straight to the people,” Trump said. “As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government, and across the economy.
“To be honest, I inherited a mess — at home and abroad — a mess,” said the president, who has served for less than a month, adding that “ISIS has spread like cancer. Another mess I inherited.”
“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people,” said Trump.
“The press is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control,” he added.
One instance that Trump used to illustrate the media’s out of control dishonesty is the claim that his administration is in “chaos”, as Time Magazine dedicated the cover of their publication to this narrative, along with a story titled “Inside Donald Trump’s White House Chaos“.
President Trump disputed the recent mainstream media headlines of “chaos” in his administration, instead stating that his team is “running like a fine-tuned machine”.
“I’m here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that’s been made the last four weeks since my inauguration,” Trump said. “I see stories of chaos. It’s the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.” “There’s zero chaos” Trump said, followed by a reference to prior administrations and their penchant for sweeping America’s issues under the rug, “To be honest I inherited a mess, it’s a mess. At home and abroad.”
Next, Trump gets into a tussle with CNN reporter Jim Acosta, the same journalist that prompted Trump to openly call CNN fake news at a press conference last month, where he ups the ante and coins the term “VERY fake news“.
Today, the president took several queries from Acosta, at one point saying he now will refer to CNN as “very fake news.”
Acosta assured the president, “I don’t hate you” and that his network also does not “hate” the president.
He pressed Trump on why he touted the Wikileaks releases during the campaign, but is now calling leaks from within the government “illegal.”
Trump said the leaks from the intelligence community in the past week involve “highly-classified information,” while the Wikileaks emails involved “John Podesta saying bad things about the boss.”
Acosta pressed Trump on a statement moments before in which Trump said the leaks are “real,” but the news about them is fake.
Trump answered that he takes issue with the “hatred” that he sees on news programs toward him and the negative “tone” of the coverage.
He predicted the reporting after the news conference would be negative and falsely claim that he “ranted and raved” at reporters.
“I love this. I’m having a good time,” he said.
Acosta asked Trump whether calling outlets “fake news” could have a damaging effect by “undermining” Americans’ faith in the First Amendment and their confidence in the media.
Trump answered that the media often spins stories that he sees as positive into something “really bad.”
“I want to see an honest press. … It’s so important to the public. The public doesn’t believe you people anymore,” said Trump.
Needless to say, the mainstream reporters were not too happy with the president shining a light on their obvious bias, dishonesty and complete disregard for the American people’s needs for facts along with their news stories. Trump essentially explains exactly how millions of American voters view the press after the election, along with their attempts to diminish conservative values.
Chuck Todd of NBC News vented his frustrations on Twitter, where he used a play on Trump’s tweet yesterday when he called the leaking of classified information “un-American”.
This not a laughing matter. I’m sorry, delegitimizing the press is unAmerican
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) February 16, 2017
Press bashing may feel good to folks but when it’s done by people in power, it’s corrosive. Take off your partisan hats for a second
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) February 16, 2017
Trump’s gave a direct speech to the American people, as he completely disconnected the media from his message, and spoke off the cuff with no teleprompter present.
“I’m making this presentation directly to the American people with the media present, which is an honor to have you, this morning, because many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth. And will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve.”
“Many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat you with the respect you deserve. Much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles in particular, speaks for the special interests and for those profiting off the obviously very, very broken system.”
“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it. We have to find out what’s going on because the press honestly is out of control. In other words, the media is trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made, and they are not happy about it, for whatever reason. But a lot of people are happy about it.”
President Trump has a point, as if he achieves victory in fulfilling his promises to the American people it would be an even bigger blow to the Democrats and globalists than him winning the election over the media’s champion, Hillary Clinton. It would be the final nail in the coffin of globalism, cronyism and politics as we know it since a vast amount of the public will then realize how ineffective the political establishment really is.
Trump also mentions how the press no longer speaks for the American people as a whole, but rather their message caters mainly to the very liberal urban areas of the country. Does the media really think their stories quoting “anonymous sources” to spin a constant stream of negative articles against Trump really speaks to the over 60 million people who voted for him? Is the media speaking to the millions of conservatives, or even moderate liberals, with their obvious bias toward Trump’s administration? I’m sure many Americans are more concerned with jobs, the economy and national security than the constant citing of “sources” claiming chaos within our government.
View the full epic beatdown of the media in the full press conference video below.