President Donald Trump said on Twitter Monday that he will continue to fight the establishment media, despite critics’ complaints.
“I know it is not at all ‘Presidential’ to hit back at the Corrupt Media, or people who work for the Corrupt Media, when they make false statements about me or the Trump Administration,” Trump acknowledged on Twitter. “Problem is, if you don’t hit back, people believe the Fake News is true. So we’ll hit back!”
Trump spent the weekend challenging a New York Times story reporting that his new deal with Mexico to help secure the border was already underway when he threatened economic tariffs on the country.
“The Failing New York Times and ratings-challenged CNN will do anything possible to see our Country fail!” he wrote. “They are truly The Enemy of the People!”
The story challenged a big win for the president’s decision to use tariffs as a negotiating weapon. Mexico officials moved quickly to address the problem, traveling to Washington, DC, to make an agreement with the president to ward off the tariffs.
“When will the Failing New York Times admit that their front page story on the new Mexico deal at the Border is a FRAUD and nothing more than a badly reported ‘hit job’ on me, something that has been going on since the first day I announced for the presidency!” Trump wrote on Monday. “Sick Journalism.”
Trump accused the Times of purposely reporting fake news to damage his reputation.
“The Failing New York Times story on Mexico and Illegal Immigration through our Southern Border has now been proven shockingly false and untrue, bad reporting, and the paper is embarrassed by it,” he wrote. “The only problem is that they knew it was Fake News before it went out. Corrupt Media!”
Trump said that the media were purposefully trying to diminish the impact of his deal made with Mexico, arguing that they would have responded to an Obama victory differently.
“If President Obama made the deals that I have made, both at the Border and for the Economy, the Corrupt Media would be hailing them as Incredible, and a National Holiday would be immediately declared,” he wrote. “With me, despite our record-setting Economy and all that I have done, no credit!”