Bridgewater, New Jersey: A day after defending his use of social media as befitting a "modern day" president, President Donald Trump appeared to promote violence against CNN in a tweet.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Trump, who is on holiday at his Bedminster golf resort, posted on Twitter an old video clip of him performing in a WWE professional wrestling match, but with a CNN logo superimposed on the head of his opponent.
In the clip, Trump is shown slamming the CNN avatar to the ground and pounding him with punches and elbows to the head. Trump added the hastags #FraudNewsCNN and #FNN, for "fraud news network."
The video clip apparently had been posted days earlier on Reddit, a popular social media message board. The President's tweet was the latest escalation in his beef with CNN over its coverage of him and his administration.
A White House spokeswoman with the travelling press corps hotel here in Bridgewater, a few kilometres from Trump's golf club, declined to address the questions about the tweet.
On ABC's This Week, homeland security adviser Tom Bossert dismissed the idea that the tweet might be a threat, while he praised the president for "genuine" communication.
"No one would perceive that as a threat, I hope they don't," he said, referring to the tweet.
In a statement, CNN called it "a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters." The network cited Trump's "juvenile behaviour far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his."
The company's communications department Twitter account responded to Trump's tweet by quoting White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a briefing last week when she said: "The President in no way form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary."
In the statement, CNN said: "Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the President had never done so."
Lawmakers felt otherwise, taking to Twitter to blast Trump for, again, tweeting "crude, false, and unpresidential content." Many defended the free press as critical to the nation's democracy, especially with Independence Day on the horizon.
Trump's latest outrage-inducing tweet came just days after he attacked the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe on Twitter with graphic language that was widely condemned by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The following day, Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough responded in a guest column that questioned whether Trump was fit to be president.
"Obviously, I don't see that as an appropriate comment," House Speaker Paul Ryan said of Trump's comments on Thursday. "What we're trying to do around here is improve the civility and tone of the debate, and this obviously does not do that."
Trump's ire at CNN has increased since the broadcaster retracted a story last week that said the Senate was investigating connections between one of his transition aides and the head of a Russian bank; the network fired three reporters and editors over the report, but the White House has continued to denounce the story.
On Saturday, Trump called CNN "fake news" and "garbage journalism." He also implied that his critics are wrong to suggest that it is beneath the office of the presidency to attack rivals on Twitter.
He said he was compelled to weaponise the medium to defeat "fake news" organisations:
"....the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media. I had to beat #FakeNews, and did. We will continue to WIN!"
Trump also spent a chunk of a speech at the Celebrate Freedom rally for veterans and religious freedom at the Kennedy Centre on Saturday night denouncing and taunting the media.
"The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them. The people know the truth," he said. "The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House, but I'm president and they're not."
He drew a standing ovation from the crowd, which waved miniature American flags.
The video is from a WWE appearance in which Trump body slammed WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as part of the 'Battle of the Billionaires'.
Mr Trump has had a long association with the WWE and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2013. At the ceremony, WWE chairman Vince McMahon referred to Trump as "a Wrestlemania institution" and recalled this episode, which culminated with Trump participating in shaving McMahon's head in the ring.
CNN has been a frequent target in Trump's tweets, which have described the network as everything from "unwatchable" to "the worst".
Bossert echoed a line of defence that other Trump surrogates have employed in recent days: that when Trump's policies are attacked in the media, he has a right to counterpunch – in this case, physically.
"He's beaten up, in a way, on the cable platforms – he has a right to respond," Bossert said.
Bossert argued that the tweet might actually a good thing, because "whatever the content of that tweet or any particular tweet, he's generated a genuine ability to communicate directly" with the American people.
"Importantly here, he's a genuine president expressing himself genuinely." Bossert said. He added that he was "pretty proud of the president for developing a Twitter and a social media platform where he can talk directly to the American people."
When host Martha Raddatz pressed him to weigh in on the appropriateness of the tweet, Bossert accused the media of harping on it instead of focusing on more substantive issues.
"It's a good example of you or the media producers here deciding what we talk about and what we don't talk about," he said.
Washington Post
