MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann compared President Donald Trump to a banana republic dictator on “Morning Joe” Thursday and said the president is attacking the press as a last resort.
“This is a classic authoritarian move,” Heilemann said. “We see it in banana republics all over the world for centuries. This is one of the first things you do. When you are weak and losing power and things are spinning out of control, is you try to attack the kind of bedrock foundations of things that are meant to constrain you. The press is meant to constrain the presidency in our system, the president lashes out.”
The panel was discussing Trump’s tweets suggesting certain media outlets should have their licenses revoked. Host Joe Scarborough suggested the tweets stem from Trump’s insecurity and ignorance.
“It’s also about his deep, deep insecurity about his intellect or his lack of intellect. We showed the clip yesterday of him talking about how smart he was. About how high his IQ was. Obviously you don’t say that,” Scarborough said. “I’m just a dumb country lawyer so I wouldn’t know. But smart people tell me that if you say that all the time, you are obviously extraordinarily insecure about your intelligence. And that story yesterday got to him because his own aides, people close to him once again, were talking about his complete and utter ignorance of U.S. foreign policy and nuclear strategy over the past sixty years.”
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