During a sit-down interview with Donald Trump that was aired on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace told POTUS that although most presidents expressed frustration with the media coverage, nobody had called the press “the enemy of the American people.”
“The fake news is the enemy – it’s fake, it’s phoney. I don’t mind getting bad news if I’m wrong,” Trump responded, clarifying that he did not refer to all media as the “enemy,” but certain outlets that he considered “fake news.”
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But Wallace kept pushing Trump on the topic, claiming that “leaders in authoritarian countries like Russia, China, Venezuela, now repress the media using your words.”
As Trump said that he couldn’t speak for other countries, Wallace interrupted him, suggesting that he was viewed as a “beacon for repression around the world” while citing his crusade against the fake news media.
Trump further tried to explain that his attacks on the media were targeting only unfair and false coverage:
“The news about me is largely phoney. It’s false. Even sometimes they say ‘sources say’ – there is no source in many cases. […] Fake reporting is what’s tearing this country apart,” he said.
Social media users appeared to be irritated by the fact that Wallace called Trump a “beacon for repression,” with the lion’s share of netizens calling the US president a “beacon of hope”:
…and heaping praise on the 45th POTUS for exposing media bias – something, which they said, would go down in history:
Some pointed to the fact that Wallace seemingly couldn’t grasp Trump’s idea of fake news:
A few Twitterians spoke out against Trump’s rhetoric, lauding Wallace for the interview:
Since taking office last year, Donald Trump has consistently been blasting media outlets for inaccurate coverage, repeatedly stressing in his tweets that it’s the fake news that is “the enemy of the people.”
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In January 2018, POTUS even announced the winners of his “Highly Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards,” with The New York Times topping the list of 11 media outlets.