Donald Trump
ratcheted up his attacks on the media Friday, blasting the press as "the
enemy of the American people!"
Shortly after
landing at his holiday home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida -- where he is spending a
third consecutive weekend -- the president lashed out in 140 characters.
"The FAKE
NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it
is the enemy of the American People!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump had tweeted an earlier post which targeted the New York Times, CNN, NBC "and many more" media -- and ended with the exclamation "SICK!"
But he swiftly
deleted that missive before reposting the definitive version -- adding two more
"enemies" to his blacklist.
The 70-year-old
Trump built his campaign on criticizing the press as biased. In addition to
regularly accusing the media of overstating his setbacks, he has also accused
journalists of failing to show sufficient respect for his accomplishments.
On Thursday, he
launched a long diatribe at a grievance-filled news conference, in which he
blamed the media for his one-month-old administration's problems.
In four weeks,
Trump has seen his national security advisor ousted, a cabinet nominee
withdraw, a centerpiece immigration policy fail in the courts and a tidal wave
of damaging leaks.
Many US
presidents have criticized the press, but Trump's language has more closely
echoed remarks leveled by authoritarian leaders around the world.
His comments
had some observers declaring that the Republican was veering dangerously close
to infringing on the constitutionally protected freedom of the press.
"I love
that part of the 1st Amendment that declares the press the enemy of the
American people," conservative commentator S.E. Cupps wrote on Twitter,
adding the hashtag "Trumps America."
Ben Rhodes, a
top advisor to former president Barack Obama, called Trump's criticism of the
media "a gift to authoritarians everywhere -- will discredit any US
efforts to support freedom of the press globally."
Many reporters
were taken aback by Thursday's press conference, described by some as bizarre,
but Trump echoed the words of praise he got from one rightwing commentator and
insisted the outing had been a bravura performance.
"'One of
the most effective press conferences I've ever seen!' says Rush Limbaugh. Many
agree. Yet FAKE MEDIA calls it differently! Dishonest," Trump wrote on
Twitter about an hour after the earlier tweet.
Trump declared
during the news conference: "Much of the media in Washington, DC -- along
with New York, Los Angeles, in particular -- speaks not for the people but for
the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken
system.
"The press
has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about, we are doing a tremendous
disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk to
find out what's going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The
level of dishonesty is out of control."
Trump's
campaign website and the Republican Party on Thursday posted a "Mainstream
Media Accountability Survey," asking respondents questions such as:
"On which issues do the mainstream media do the worst job of representing
Republicans?"
It also asks
whether the GOP should spend "more time and resources" holding the
media accountable.
It's not known
what it will take -- or if it's even possible -- for Trump to plug the leaks in
his administration, but an ally on Capitol Hill stepped in Friday to help.
House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has asked the FBI to investigate
the leaks, Politico reported, citing three sources familiar with his request.
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