Trump launches own ‘real news’ service, starring daughter-in-law
Lara Trump anchors video campaign to turn tide of negative publicity by praising the president
‘Want to know what President Trump did this week? Watch here for REAL news! ’
‘I bet you haven’t heard about all the accomplishments the president had this week because there is so much fake news’
DONALD TRUMP has declared himself so unimpressed by media coverage of his administration that he has launched his own “news service”, with broadcasts proclaiming his triumphs presented by one Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law.
At the end of a week which saw the chief of staff fired, a vulgar tirade by his communications director, who was then forced out, the collapse of efforts to repeal Obamacare and yet another deeply concerning missile launch by North Korea, Mr Trump set about changing the narrative.
“Want to know what President Trump did this week? Watch here for REAL news!” his Facebook page proclaimed.
In the video, published on Sunday evening and now watched by two million people, Mrs Trump, who is married to Mr Trump’s son Eric, lists the president’s achievements.
It appears the Trump news channel is produced by his reelection campaign, with Mrs Trump speaking against the backdrop of his campaign website – Donaldjtrump.com.
“I bet you haven’t heard about all the accomplishments the president had this week because there is so much fake news out there,” she said.
She told viewers how Mr Trump has once again donated his salary for this quarter, noting admiringly: “This is a president who is putting America before himself.”
She claimed, almost accurately, that the unemployment rate – 4.4 per cent in June, 4.3 per cent in May – is the lowest since 2001. For four months in 2005 and 2006, the unemployment rate was also 4.4 per cent.
Mrs Trump, a television producer before she married, correctly stated that the Dow Jones stock market was at an all-time high, and told how Mr Trump had welcomed to the White House the police officers who had saved the lives of the politicians practicing baseball on June 14.
She failed to mention the “news” that Mr Trump himself was tweeting about last week – their failed effort to reform healthcare; the Russia investigation; gridlock over healthcare; China’s policy towards North Korea, which Mr Trump said left him “very disappointed,” adding: “They do NOTHING.”
She also ignored the oddest news of the week: in 2015, Mr Trump was apparently in “serious talks” to play the US president in the film Sharknado 3:
Oh Hell No, a sequel to the cult disaster movie Sharknado.
She did, however, reference Mr Trump’s Friday visit to Long Island, where he spoke about the MS-13 gang problem. She did not mention that his speech was panned, after he told police not to bother taking steps to ensure the wellbeing of people they detained.
His remarks were condemned by the Drugs Enforcement Agency, NYPD and police forces nationwide.
Last night, more of Mr Trump’s words came back to haunt him.
After the Boy Scouts criticised as overly political a speech the president gave to their annual jamboree last week, the organisation has denied calling Mr Trump to praise it, directly contradicting the president’s own version of events.
“We are unaware of any such call,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.
It specified that neither of the organisation’s two top leaders – Randall Stephenson, its president, or Mike Surbaugh, the chief scout executive – had placed a call in regard to the president’s address.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokesman, said Boy Scout leaders had praised Mr Trump in person after his speech. She said the president was making reference to “multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership” who “congratulated him, praised him and offered quite powerful compliments following his speech”.
Yesterday the president was attempting to turn the page, coming out in favour of legislation from two Republican senators that would place new limits on legal immigration and seek to create a system based more on merit and skills than family ties. Mr Trump said the measure would represent “the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century”.
The proposal, introduced by David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, would change the 1965 law to reduce the number of legal immigrants, limiting the number of people able to obtain green cards to join families already in the United States.
It would also aim to slash the number of refugees in half and eliminate a programme that provides visas to countries with low rates of immigration.
“This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first, and puts America first,” said Mr Trump.