The media is freaking out today about a ban Trump imposed on some of them today, and Jake Tapper nobly took up the banner of outrage against the despotic Trump, which he called “un-American”!!
Watch below:
So he makes a few good points – Sean Spicer is totally hypocritical when he says it would be dictatorship if the prezzy banned media from pressers, and then does exactly that. But I think it’s overblown, and Ari Fleischer made a really good case about why that is, in this previous post.
But there’s one thing he says that really makes me roll my eyes – Tapper says that Trump is upending the checks and balances on the executive by doing this, which is absurd. The checks and balances on the executive have to do with the other branches of government, NOT the press. Now, surely the press is a check on the power of the executive, but not in the same way as the legislative or the judicial branch. In that, he tries to elevate the position of the media to the level of an elected power, and this is ridiculous.
Like I’ve said before, Trump says a lot of dumb crap that makes him sound like a totalitarian. But so far he’s done very very little to prove himself such. Let’s not exaggerate over these small details because it erodes our credibility when, and if, he actually DOES turn into Hitler with a toupee….