Trump rallies supporters, blasts media and Obama

HARRISBURG (Pennsylvania): Donald Trump hailed a“very productive” first 100 days asAmerica’ s president on Saturday, telling a roaring crowd of supporters other “great battles” ahead would be won.

In an hour-long speech, Trump lambasted the media and predecessor Barack Obama, boasted of his support for United States industry and the military, and vaunted his foreign policy positions, including on confronting North Korea, earning cheers from the crowd.

The president held the campaign-style rally in a state that helped tip the election in his favour, while snubbing a traditional White House correspondents’ dinner taking place on the same day, where he had risked being roasted by comedians.

Declaring himself “thrilled” to be far from “the Washington swamp” and the “very boring” dinner, the president sneered at “fake news” CNN and the “failing” New York Times.

“They are a disgrace,” he said. The black-tie affair in Washington was headlined by veteran investigative journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who gained fame in the Watergate scandal that prompted the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.

Woodward rebuffed Trump’s relentless barbs against news outlets.

“Mr president, the media is not fake news — let’s take that off the table as we proceed,” he said.

“Whatever the climate, whether the media is revered or reviled, we should and must persist and I believe we will.”

Some of Trump’s animosity stemmed from US media evaluating his 100-day record as meagre and mixed.

They have noted embarrassing setbacks for the Republican on healthcare and a travel ban, and reversals on China and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, while also recognising campaign pledges he had met, like appointing a conservative Supreme Court judge and pulling the country out of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. AFP