President Donald Trump labeled The New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and CNN enemies of the American people in a tweet Friday.
“The FAKE NEWS media (failing [New York Times], [NBC News], [ABC News], [CBS News], [CNN]) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People,” Trump tweeted. This comes a day after a lengthy combative press conference held by the president at the White House.
Trump said at the presser, “The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. We have to talk about it. We have to find out what’s going on because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.”
The Trump Make American Great Again Committee, composed of Donald J. Trump for President and the Republican National Committee, subsequently sent an email to supporters Thursday titled “You’re our last line of defense.” This email included a link to a “media accountability survey,” which President Trump wrote was necessary for supporters to take to do their “part to fight back against the media’s attacks and deceptions.” (RELATED: Trump: The ‘Level Of Dishonesty’ In The Press Is Out Of Control)
The survey consists of 25 questions and asks people things like, “Do you believe that our Party should spend more time and resources holding the mainstream media accountable?,” or “Do you believe that the media purposely tries to divide Republicans against each other in order to help elect Democrats?”
The latter part of Trump’s fourth week in office has seemed to be concentrated on a war on the press after several major outlets have reported on leaks from intelligence officers and government officials. The president is holding a rally in Florida Saturday because, according to a spokeswoman, the press does not “do the best job delivering his message and nobody does it better than he does.”