- President Donald Trump lashed out at the media in a series of tweets Sunday afternoon to complain about negative coverage.
- Trump blamed “haters” for the overwhelmingly negative coverage of his presidency.
- Trump’s tweets come hours after it was revealed he met with New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger last week, and was warned by Sulzberger about the danger of his anti-press rhetoric.
President Donald Trump lashed out at the media in a series of tweets Sunday afternoon to decry what he characterized as invasive and negative coverage.
Trump took aim at what he called “unpatriotic” journalists “driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome” and complained about negative coverage of his administration.
When the media – driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome – reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic! Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…accurately. 90% of media coverage of my Administration is negative, despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving, it’s no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low! I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…dying newspaper industry. No matter how much they try to distract and cover it up, our country is making great progress under my leadership and I will never stop fighting for the American people! As an example, the failing New York Times…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements – and they will never change!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
It was not immediately clear which achievements Trump was citing.
The statistic Trump cited, that 90% of his media coverage is negative, is similar to the figure found by the Harvard University Shorenstein Center during Trump's early days in office and the one found in May by the right-wing media site NewsBusters.
Trump's mention of the "failing New York Times" comes mere hours after he tweeted about "a very good and interesting" meeting last week with the publisher of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, who said in a statement he warned Trump about the "deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric" he touts on Twitter and in person.