Trump lashes out at ‘out of control’ media

President Trump blasted the “out of control” dishonesty of the mainstream media during a Thursday press conference, accusing reporters of distorting facts to advance special interests. He singled out CNN and the BBC for “very fake news”.

“The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake,” he said with reference to the Michael Flynn resignation, where classified information had been leaked to the press.

He predicted that the press would claim that he was “ranting” and “raving” during his conference. “Tomorrow the headlines are going to be Donald Trump rants,” he said. “I’m not ranting and raving, I’m just telling you you’re dishonest people,” Trump told the media.

Bloomberg indeed dubbed a 25-minute speech a “tirade” in which he noted that news organisations work “for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very broken system.” He mentioned that a Rasmussen poll found that he had 55 percent approval rating and added that “the stock market has hit record numbers, as you know”.

“I’m here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that’s been made the last four weeks since my inauguration,” Trump said. “I see stories of chaos. It’s the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine.” “There’s zero chaos” he claimed, and pointed to Obama: “To be honest I inherited a mess,” Trump said. “It’s a mess. At home and abroad.”

The president also mentioned ISIS, which he said has “spread like cancer”. “That’s another mess I inherited,” he said.

“Many of our nation’s reporters and folks will not tell you the truth and will not treat you with the respect you deserve”

“The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it. We have to find out what’s going on because the press honestly is out of control.”

“In other words, the media is trying to attack our administration because they know we are following through on pledges that we made, and they are not happy about it, for whatever reason,” he said.

“I am here to change the broken system so it serves their families and their communities well. I am talking — and really talking on this very entrenched power structure, and what we’re doing is we’re talking about the power structure; we’re talking about its entrenchment. As a result, the media is going through what they have to go through too often times distort — not all the time — and some of the media is fantastic, I have to say – they’re honest and fantastic.”

But Trump asked a black reporter whether members of the Congressional Black Caucus are friends of hers.

He warned that bad relations with Russia could result in nuclear war, as a way of explaining his attempt to remake relations with President Vladimir Putin. “Nuclear holocaust would be like no other,” he said.