President Trump said Friday that reporters who cover the White House should stop relying on anonymous sources who refuse to criticize him on the record.
“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are, they are the enemy of the people because they have no sources, they just make ’em up when there are none,” Trump told thousands of grassroots activists at the 44th annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
“I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources,” he said. “They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use someone’s name. Let them say it to my face.”
“I saw one story recently where they said ‘nine people have confirmed…’ There are no nine people. I don’t believe there were one or two people,” he said.
Numerous media outlets have used unnamed sources to characterize the West Wing as chaotic and disorganized, or to provide details on how the president interacts with foreign leaders and his staff. Trump said the press corps has developed a tendency to get “upset” when his administration “expose[s] their false stories.”
“They say that we can’t criticize their false stories because of the First Amendment,” he charged. “I mean, I love the First Amendment. Who uses it more than I do?”
“It gives me the right and you the right to criticize fake news and criticize it strongly,” he said.
Trump’s appearance at CPAC comes less than 24 hours after White House chief strategist Steve Bannon blasted the media during a joint panel with the president’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
“They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda,” Bannon had said after repeatedly referring to the press as “the opposition party.”
He simultaneously predicted that Trump’s relationship with the media is “going to get worse every day.”
Trump: "The fake news" are "the enemy of the people." pic.twitter.com/kcLYcBcjAA— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 24, 2017
