Wednesday, October 17, 2018

What did Donald Trump do today?

He complained that the AP wrote down what he said.

Trump gave a long interview to the Associated Press yesterday, which was fact-checked in detail by other media outlets (including the AP itself, twice) today. 

Trump enjoys attention from the media he claims to hate, and has been especially anxious to get it recently since Fox News stopped carrying his rallies live. But he's often upset by what he sees. Among his 19 tweets today (through 9:30 p.m.) was a complaint that the AP had somehow misled readers with a headline. It seems likely that Trump is referring to this headline:


AP: So my question is, if Republicans were to lose control of the House on November 6th — or a couple of days later depending on how long it takes to count the votes — do you believe you bear some responsibility for that? 
Trump: No, I think I'm helping people.
Trump went on to talk about the primary elections he'd intervened in, and claimed that "many people" had told him that they would never vote in any election where he wasn't on the ballot.

So what?

  • In a democracy, leaders don't get to dictate their own press coverage.
  • It's bad if a president won't or can't acknowledge (or remember) his own words from a day ago.