President Donald Trump on Monday blamed unfair media coverage for causing “great anger” in the United States.
He also said in a series of tweets that the “Fake News Media” is “the true Enemy of the People.â€
“Trump calls media “the true Enemy of the People” two days after mass shooting at synagogueâ€
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1056897455130841088HillTWEET
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“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony,” he also wrote, before adding: “Fake News Must End!â€
There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018
….of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018
Trump’s tweets came after a tumultuous week of mailed pipe bombs and two racially-based incidents in Pittsburgh and in Louisville that took the lives of 13 people.
One thing that is clear is that Trump feels no remorse and takes no responsibility for any of the violence that has occurred. On the contrary he is doubling down on his main themes which include attacking the free press. When he wrote this morning “The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People†he was making a very direct appeal to his hardcore followers who trust his words more than the words of established “mainstream media†outlets such as CNN, NBC News, The Washington Post or The New York Times.
Like all autocrats and dictators before him Donald Trump claims that ANY negative coverage of him or his administration is “fake news.” This means that his followers will believe the lies that he tells them instead of believing documented facts that are reported in legitimate news outlets.
Trump has escalated his attacks in recent months and he has continued to describe the media as the “enemy of the people.” We have seen more attacks on journalists also. Several weeks ago he was in Montana and he praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) for physically assaulting a news reporter. He was reluctant to condemn the murder of Saudi journalist Khashoggi, who had criticized the rulers of Saudi Arabia. He has been blamed for other attacks on the media, such as the murders of journalists in Annapolis, Maryland earlier this year.
Although he has called for unity in the United States in recent days, his continued attacks on the media undercut this message.
Cesar Sayoc Jr. has been charged with mailing thirteen explosive devices to Democrats, each of whom has had the nerve to speak out against Trump. Each of these Trump critics has also been attacked by name at Trump rallies where his faithful followers are whipped into a frenzy by the president’s inflammatory rhetoric.
Trump’s critics have said that the president’s language and tone have deepened the country’s divisions. They point to his attacks on the Democratic Party as an “angry mob” as well as the rally chants of “CNN sucks” and “lock her up” that have encouraged his own mob of followers to take the law into their own hands.
On Friday Trump told reporters that he felt he had been restrained in his language, and he rejected requests that he “tone it down†as the nation was shaken with the bomb scares.
“I could really tone it up because, as you know, the media’s been extremely unfair to me and to the Republican Party,” Trump said at the time.
On Sunday evening Trump posted this tweet:
“The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!â€
The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2018
This seems to be a warning and a threat by the president. He seems to imply that things will get worse instead of better. We are living in dangerous times because the most powerful person in the world is creating deep divisions and inciting violence, much the way that Hitler did when the Nazi’s took over power in Germany.
It is now up to the people of the United States, by voting in next week’s elections, to take back power from this dictator wannabe. It is up to each of us to do our part to save our democracy and send a message to the tyrant in the White House that his words and his behavior are not acceptable.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
