Trump takes new swing at media

US President Donald Trump has threatened to challenge the broadcast licences of NBC and other networks.

His tweets were apparently spurred by a report from NBC that said Trump expressed a desire to increase the US nuclear arsenal by ten-fold.

“Fake [NBC News] made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our US nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!” Trump tweeted. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”

Trump’s threat to challenge the broadcast licences that NBC holds with the FCC for its owned-and-operated stations recalls US President Richard Nixon’s similar threats against the Washington Post’s parent company at the height of the Watergate scandal. Nixon’s threats were made in private.

In reality, a challenge to NBC’s broadcast licences would be a lengthy process involving petitions at the FCC. But Trump’s statement predictably raised hackles in media circles as it raised the spectre of government censorship.

Meanwhile, Trump is expected to visit Britain in January in a “working” trip that would not see him meet the Queen or stay at Buckingham Palace. A senior US diplomatic figure has told the Daily Telegraph that the US President may visit to open America’s new London Embassy. Such a trip would avoid the controversy of a proposed state visit. British and US officials insisted that a full state visit would go ahead. Trump announced he will nominate Kirstjen Nielsen, a cybersecurity expert and deputy White House chief of staff, to be Homeland Security secretary. Mizuno Rider 19 2E* ORP $250 Asics 2000 5 2E* ORP $250 New Balance 6780 ORP $150 Asics 1000 5 D** ORP $220