As a giant balloon depicting the American president as a tantrum-throwing baby in a diaper flies over London, the thin-skinned Donald Trump threw insults and accusations against reporters at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Teresa May.
President Trump claims he did not criticize Prime Minister May over her Brexit strategy and suggests his interview with The Sun is "fake news" https://t.co/eENipumEuW https://t.co/RMwmkC5CI6
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 13, 2018
As he stood next to a world leader he had slammed in an interview less than 24 hours before their meeting, Trump insisted that the publication that published that criticism was just “fake news” and that he had recorded the interview to fight their lies. He also said that his remarks against May that were largely positive were left out of the reporting.
The Sun has already posted the full audio of the interview online. None of Trump’s remarks were taken out of context, nor were his comments praising May as a “good person” left out. His insults about what he says have been May’s failures on Brexit or his touting of her rival, Boris Johnson, were reported accurately.
Pres. Trump: "We have a lot of false reporting in this country. I don't you have that in your country, do you, Prime Minister?" https://t.co/Ak5N61XZBy pic.twitter.com/M6AgAFbJ0z
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 13, 2018
His attacks on news reporters who dare to ask him tough questions and report his actual quotes were a theme of the press conference. Instead of using diplomacy and defending the stances he’s taken on foreign policies and leaders, he lashed out repeatedly over any question that didn’t simply fawn over him and ask the questions he wanted to answer.
Reporter: "Are you giving Russian President Vladimir Putin the upper hand heading into your talks…"@POTUS: "See, that's such dishonest reporter, of course it happens to be NBC which is possibly worse than @CNN. Possibly, possibly." pic.twitter.com/vUEXG8tmZI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 13, 2018
It wasn’t just The Sun that incurred his wrath, however. He also blasted NBC for asking about his NATO and EU criticisms since they echo the aims of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After criticizing CNN, Pres. Trump declines to take a question from a CNN reporter at joint presser with Theresa May. "CNN is fake news. I don't take questions from CNN."
Pres. Trump then called on a Fox News reporter: "Let's go to a real network." https://t.co/J203tu17bY pic.twitter.com/yxe1Ya2xeY
— ABC News (@ABC) July 13, 2018
Perhaps his worst tantrum came, however, after calling on Jim Acosta of CNN – which looked to be only for show as he then refused to answer his question – and then pivoting to a Fox News reporter, which he called “a real network.”
At this point, being called “fake news” by Trump is almost a compliment considering that he denies the accuracy of reporting that includes full audio of the stories. When Trump calls stories “fake news,” it’s likely that the story is just more accurate than he would prefer.
Featured image via video