Trump thinks CNN and MSNBC are “illegal”

Trump claims the media is targeting him unfairly: «In my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal. What they are doing is illegal», he exclaims.

«The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and MSDNC, and the fake news, CNN and ABC, CBS and NBC, they’ll write whatever they say», he continued. «And, what do you do to get rid of them? You convict Trump.»

Trump did not specify who he was referring to with the term «them». However, he later implied that it was CNN and MSNBC, stating that these media outlets «write 97.6% negative things about [him]», and that they are therefore «political arms of the Democrat party».

«I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal», says the president when speaking to employees of the Department of Justice.

«And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal, and they do it in total coordination with each other», he adds.

During this very strange gathering at the Department of Justice, Trump then praised the work of Florida District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he had appointed in 2020.

The latter had ruled in Trump’s favor in January, preventing the Department of Justice from sharing a report on the alleged mishandling of classified documents by the president with members of Congress, according to CNN. According to Trump, the media attacked Cannon because of this January decision.

Trump’s dislike of the media is not recent. He regularly calls journalists “enemies of the people” and conveyors of “fake news”.

Trump also announced on February 14 the ban on access to the Oval Office and his presidential plane, Air Force One, to the Associated Press (AP). His reason: the refusal of this global news agency to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

«This is about the government telling the public and press what words to use and retaliating if they do not follow government orders. The White House has restricted AP’s coverage of presidential events because of how we refer to a location», protested an Associated Press spokesperson, Lauren Easton, in a statement released to AFP.

Trump has also launched several lawsuits against media outlets, reports CNN. Even against the Pulitzer Prize board. The president criticized the committee for awarding the 2018 national reporting prize to the Washington Post and the New York Times for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election and its alleged ties to the Trump campaign.

Paramount Global, owner of CBS News, is also facing a lawsuit from Trump due to a media interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes.

In December, ABC News reached a $15 million settlement in a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump.