US President Donald Trump is threatening media outfits again, this time raising a possibility that he in fact can challenge their broadcast license in future.
Blasting a NBC News investigation that said Donald Trump wanted a tenfold increase in the US nuclear stockpile, Trump wrote on his Twitter handle, "NBC News made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!", declaring the whole piece fake.
The meeting with highest ranking national security officials of the US where Trump made the comment took place this summer. NBC News also reported that after Trump's remarks, Rex Tillerson, his Secretary of State, termed him a moron, something which was also called a fake news piece by Trump. While dismissing the row over Tillerson's moron jibe, Trump, in fact, went on to say that even if Tillerson said that, he was ready for an IQ test.
While blasting NBC News, Trump further said that media networks producing fake stories was bad for country and questioned when and "at what point was it appropriate to challenge their License."
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
7:25 PM - 11 Oct 2017
Trump says since he won the Presidential polls, media outfits have run multiple fake stories targeting him and he routinely blasts networks running stories uncomfortable to him, be it CNN, the New York Times or the Washington Post or any other one.
In March, Trump had threatened to stop the White House Press briefings after row over FBI director James Comey's ouster even if it was his press office that was at fault.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy Press Secretary of the White House then, first said Comey’s firing would not affect at all the investigation into the Russian meddling in the US presidential election last year. Then she said Comey’s removal would hasten the investigation. But all of this was latter dumped by Donald Trump himself who said he fired Comey to ensure that "the Russian meddling investigation is done absolutely properly."
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
5:37 PM - 12 May 2017
Also, before it, several White House officials sent out messages that Comey’s firing was for mishandling the email leak issue of Hillary Clinton and was, in no way, related to the investigation into Russian hacking. The White House press briefings have been a tradition since 1929 when the first White House Press Secretary George Akerson was appointed by President Herbert Hoover.
©SantoshChaubey
