Politics

Trump Maintains He Has A Light TV Habit, Sources Say Otherwise

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
Font Size:

President Donald Trump continues to maintain he doesn’t watch much television in the face of news reports saying the exact opposite.

Two sources close to the president, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Caller that Trump has a heavy television habit and frequently complains about cable news hosts.

The president, however, does not want to admit this publicly.

“Another false story, this time in the Failing [New York Times], that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day – Wrong! Also, I seldom, if ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News,” Trump tweeted Monday. “I never watch Don Lemon, who I once called the ‘dumbest man on television!’ Bad Reporting.”

The tweet was in reaction to a Saturday report from the Times about the president. A source close to the president told TheDC that Trump has specifically complained about Lemon before.

The Times article detailed how Trump was upset about the reporting that he watches a lot of television.

“But he is leery of being seen as tube-glued — a perception that reinforces the criticism that he is not taking the job seriously. On his recent trip to Asia, the president was told of a list of 51 fact-checking questions for this article, including one about his prodigious television watching habits. Instead of responding through an aide, he delivered a broadside on his viewing habits to befuddled reporters from other outlets on Air Force One heading to Vietnam,” the Times reported.

“I do not watch much television,” Trump told reporters on the flight. “I know they like to say — people that don’t know me — they like to say I watch television. People with fake sources — you know, fake reporters, fake sources. But I don’t get to watch much television, primarily because of documents. I’m reading documents a lot.”