President Donald Trump again criticized the news media, but this time in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum.
“It wasn’t until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be,” Trump said, as some in the audience booed.
He joked that the cameras were “going off in the back” after his comment. One reporter in the room noted that foreign journalists joined the boos from people in the audience.
Trump said he used to get great press from the media when he was a celebrity businessman but that reporters turned on him when he ran for president.
He commented that the fake news didn’t stop him from being president.
“Somebody said, ‘They couldn’t have been that bad because here we are; we’re president,’” Trump said, praising his team for doing a great job for the country.
“Everybody representing a company or a country has to be a cheerleader, or no matter what you do, it’s just not going to work,” he said.
Trump made his comments as the mainstream media in the United States were in an uproar over a New York Times article reporting that he ordered special counsel Robert Mueller fired in June and then backed off.
But Trump denied the story in brief comments to reporters.
“Fake news, folks. Fake news,” Trump replied when reporters in Davos asked about the article. “Typical New York Times. Fake stories.”