Trump’s media tactics are how dictators start
Republican’s warning as president continues his attack on the Press
SENIOR Republican John McCain has slammed Donald Trump’s campaign against the media, saying it was “how dictators get started”.
The ex-naval captain, who has clashed with the US president despite being in the same party, issued his warning a day after the leader again criticised the Press.
Senator McCain said yesterday: “The fact is we need you. We need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital.
“If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and, at many times, adversarial press.
“Without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”
McCain, who stood against Barack Obama in 2008, added: “When you look at history, the first thing dictators do is shut down the Press. I’m not saying that president Trump is trying to be a dictator. I’m just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.”
Since becoming president, Trump has branded negative stories about his administration “fake news”.
Joined by wife Melania at a rally in Melbourne, Florida, on Saturday, he likened himself to predecessors Thomas TENS of thousands of people will take to the streets in protest today as MPs debate Donald Trump’s state visit.
The biggest rally will descend on Parliament Square in Westminster, London, tonight, yards from the threehour discussion.
It comes after 1.85million people signed a petition against the president’s visit. Emma Rees of Momentum, who are involved in organising protests, said: Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, saying they had fought the Press.
He then said: “Thomas Jefferson said, ‘Nothing can be believed which is seen in a newspaper’.” Yet the quote came from a speech where Jefferson argued in support of a free press.
Trump told the crowd: “They just don’t want to report the truth” before calling the media “part of the problem” and “part of the corrupt system”.
He added: “They have their own agenda and their agenda is not your agenda.” It came a day after Trump called the “fake” news media “the enemy of the American people”.
The president also appeared to invent a terrorist attack in Sweden, confusing the country with a city in Pakistan. More than 85 people were killed in a suicide bombing in Sehwan on Friday.
But linking migration across Europe to terror attacks, including the Berlin Christmas market horror, he said: “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers.”
PROTESTERS TARGET VISIT DEBATE
“The politics of hatred and division have no place in the UK.”
Prime Minister Theresa May has made it clear she will not back down on the issue.
But Labour MP Mike Gapes, who is attending the debate, said her invitation to Trump was “premature and unnecessary”.
A rival petition backing his visit has 300,000 signatures.