Donald Trump stepped up his war on the media on Tuesday night with a new attack on the reporters who cover him.
Over the weekend, Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House and had the journalists’ press credentials deactivated. Then, just before midnight on Tuesday, he posted on Truth Social:
“All of the SLEAZEBAGS, like Third Rate ‘Reporter,’ Kaitlan Collins, of Fake News CNN, a truly unhappy person, said they weren’t going to be covering me. Then why were they ranting and raving like Lunatics, in the Press Area, at the United Nations? Why was she there?”
Although no network or news organisation said it wouldn’t cover Trump, TV pool coverage was suspended in protest of the ban. That means no video of certain events, but not a lack of coverage of the president. As for Collins, she was at the United Nations to cover the General Assembly in New York City.
Trump continued to attack her.
“She’s got a ‘TRUMP’ addiction, and so does CNN and MSDNC. They’re all sick, treasonous, and demented!”
For good measure, he also blasted the judge who is overseeing the federal lawsuit the news outlets filed against him in an attempt to overturn the ban.
“The ‘good news’ is that they have a great, for them, and totally disloyal Judge,” Trump wrote, referring to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, whom Trump appointed in 2017 but who ruled against him in another media case.
Minutes later, Trump posted a strange video of a man putting on a dress and makeup so he could pretend to be a “fake news” reporter for CNN.
On Tuesday night, Trump’s Justice Department also tried to justify his media ban in a legal filing. Read more about that here.
