Yesterday the NY Times dropped a ‘bombshell’ on Trump:
On the first couple’s recent trip overseas, Melania Trump’s television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. President Trump was not pleased.
He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox — his preferred network over what he considers the “fake news” CNN — and caused “a bit of a stir” aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.
At the end of the email chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would be standard operating procedure going forward.
Like any of this matters at all! But I guess the NY Times has to have something controversial to print about Trump.
CNN quickly got in on the action this morning asking Melania to comment. She responded with a perturbed statement to the media over their concerns about this:
Update: Spokeswoman for @FLOTUS says the first lady will watch "any channel she wants" https://t.co/sm6JoBt6Ff
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 25, 2018
First lady Melania Trump will watch “any channel she wants,” according to her spokeswoman in an apparent rebuke to the report President Donald Trump was upset to find her Air Force One television tuned into CNN.
East Wing communications director Stephanie Grisham told CNN Wednesday everyone should be focusing on the issues the first lady is seeking to highlight, such as neonatal abstinence syndrome, rather than what television channel she’s watching or a tape of her husband discussing a payout to a woman who claims to have had an extramarital affair with him.
“Did you know that every 15 minutes a baby is born with NAS? Maybe you’d like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every month,” Grisham said. “Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw) or if she heard some recording on the news.”
It’s not a secret that Trump prefers Fox News and hates CNN. It’s amazing to me that this is even a story for CNN and the New York Times. I would expect to see something like this in the magazines on the grocery store checkout lane.