Trump points out something here that I think is worth echoing.
Earlier today we posted on Ivanka being asked if the media were the enemy of the people, and she responded that they are not. However even I didn’t catch what really happened there, which Trump points out here:
They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2018
Okay that’s an interesting distinction. So I went back down Trump’s memory lane on Twitter to see how he had phrased it all those times:
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
Why was the FBI giving so much information to the Fake News Media. They are not supposed to be doing that, and knowing the enemy of the people Fake News, they put their own spin on it - truth doesn’t matter to them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
...over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough – that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2018
The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear........
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018
Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
In all but one he always refers to the enemy of the people being the “fake news media” and in the other he simply said ‘much of the media’.
Now to be fair, we know he’s talking about certain news outlets like CNN or MSNBC. And he has at least contemplated using his government against NBC when it comes to FCC licenses.
But he’s never said ALL media or ALL of press is the enemy of the people and that’s a very unfair question for Axios to ask Ivanka, asserting that it comes from her dad.
Look, I know there are nuances to all of this and Trump clearly doesn’t like media that doesn’t like him. But we’ve seen certain media outlets on constant attack of Trump since he became president. And heck, we all know that the media doesn’t like Republicans, and they gave Obama a pass for 8 years. So let’s not pretend that all of a sudden the vast majority of TV news isn’t biased against Trump and Republicans.
As I said, this is a distinction worth noting and I’m glad Trump pointed it out.