The media threw everything they had at Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. They misquoted him, showed a clear bias for Hillary Clinton, and some blatantly lied to slam the billionaire. They laughed at him, mocked him, and subtly referred to him as a fascist. But he persevered, and now he may become the first post-media President.
Trump’s future relationship with the media became apparent on Monday when he attacked them to their face and released his 100-day plan without a press conference.
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According to the NY Post, the President-elect held a closed-door meeting with several dozen press executives and anchors–including individuals who spent months attacking him. Rather than having a kumbaya moment, it was a “f***ing firing squad” where Trump laid into the media for their distortions and half-truths.
“Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar, and you should be ashamed,’” The Post reported.
Immediately following the meeting CNN had a segment about anti-Semitism and neo-Nazis and infused that conversation with Trump’s transition team on their chyron.
Later that night after beating into the media, Trump released a two-minute video on the progress he’s having in his presidential transition. He explained the goals his administration will have during their first 100 days in office.
The video was viewed more than 6.6 million times in just 15 hours on Facebook alone. To put that into perspective, cable news’ most watched program The O’Reilly Factor had 3.5 million viewers on Friday, the American Music Awards had 8.1 million, and Sunday Night Football had 16.9 million.
It’s very likely that when all mediums are considered, Trump will have more people watching his 2-minute video in 24-hours than all the people who tuned in to watch the NFL.
The media demonized George W. Bush and adored President Obama; Trump isn’t going to play that game. His social media outlets are bigger than theirs. The President-Elect knows it, and their outward hatred for him has pushed him to go it alone and become a post-media president.
