President Donald Trump is not letting up with his obsession with television ratings, even amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. and around the world. This Thursday, shortly after The Wall Street Journal published a piece from its editorial board criticizing the “boring show” of Trump’s daily press conferences at the White House covering Coronavirus response issues, Trump rushed to Twitter to angrily spout off about the publication. In so doing, he haughtily pointed to the high television ratings of his briefings as supposed evidence that they’re actually great, or something — although that ignores the fact that people are turning to the briefings because of the need for lifesaving information. Trump’s egomania lets him ignore even that.
Trump tweeted:
‘The Wall Street Journal always “forgets” to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are “through the roof” (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!’
The Wall Street Journal always “forgets” to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are “through the roof” (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2020
These are the president’s priorities on a day that over 1,500 Americans and counting have died from the Coronavirus, bringing the country’s overall official death toll to 16,312 and counting. New York state alone has faced record high single day numbers three days this week, and it’s not even the first time that he’s tweeted about his television ratings amidst the crisis. He’s quoted the same New York Times article before. The complete disregard for these issues of human life squares up with his recent insistence that the horrors of the virus “must be quickly forgotten” once the situation passes. Multiple times more people have died from the virus than died on 9/11, and Trump wants the situation “quickly forgotten.”
Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY, and it will be sooner rather than later, the horror of the Invisible Enemy, except for those that sadly lost a family member or friend, must be quickly forgotten. Our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
Some noted that Trump’s angry tweet about The Wall Street Journal came after Fox News ran a segment about their editorial in question. Rupert Murdoch, it’s worth noting, is behind both Fox and the Journal, which often leans conservative, although perhaps not quite as rabidly as Fox.
Trump calls Murdoch's WSJ "fake news" about an hour after Murdoch's Fox runs a segment on its editorial.
Left, Fox's The Daily Briefing, 2:42 p.m.
Right, Trump, 3:35 p.m. pic.twitter.com/WD8IqFTsql— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 9, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response below…
