After report, Trump blasts media; critics fire back
President Donald Trump amped up his anti-media rhetoric Wednesday when he told reporters, “It is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever they want to write. And people should look into it.”
Trump was responding to a question about an NBC news story, about which the president tweeted Wednesday morning: “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!”
Later Thursday, Trump took to Twitter again, tweeting: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!”
Was the president calling for restrictions on what the news media can report? Was he suggesting that supporters go after the license of a network for reporting a story to which he objected?
“I think the president is venting,” GOP strategist and attorney Brad Blakeman said. Trump doesn’t have the power to restrict the press, Blakeman added. “Is it unartful?
Yes. Should he be doing it? Not so directly, no, because people will get the wrong impression.”
Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alice Stewart was less charitable. “It’s inappropriate to question the credibility of a news outlet based on a story you simply don’t like.”
Trump’s fury at NBC was rooted in a mutliple-bylined story based on three high-placed anonymous sources that reported the president said he wanted to increase the U.S. nuclear arsenal tenfold at a national security meeting this summer.
Trump told reporters the story was false but also “totally unnecessary, believe me.”
Secretary of Defense James Mattis issued a statement that called the story “absolutely false” and “irresponsible.”
Was it a threat? Asked directly if he supported limits on what the press should write, Trump responded, “No, the press should speak more honestly.”
The Society for American Business Editors and Writers issued a statement that found “Trump’s apparent advocacy for revoking the broadcasting licenses of television networks that he dislikes is unacceptable. Only in totalitarian regimes are licenses removed from networks in response to the airing of stories that upset politicians.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @Debrajsaunders on Twitter.