Tipsheet

Trump's Back to Slamming 'Failing,' 'Loser' Media

President Trump is back from Asia and immediately resumed attacking the press Thursday morning on Twitter. 

His first target was CNN, which he said he was “forced to watch” while in the Philippines. 

“While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is,” he said. “Loser!”

Several hours later he took shots at The New York Times over the paper’s criticism of his efforts to develop relationships during his Asia trip.

“The failing @nytimes hates the fact that I have developed a great relationship with World leaders like Xi Jinping, President of China,” he wrote. “They should realize that these relationships are a good thing, not a bad thing. The U.S. is being respected again. Watch Trade!”

While Trump did not specifically name which piece(s) in The New York Times he was referring to, the editorial board did run an op-ed Monday titled “President Trump’s Thing for Thugs,” criticizing him for building relationship with “some of the world’s most unsavory leaders,” pointing to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

In China, he congratulated Mr. Xi for securing a second term as ruler of an authoritarian regime that Mr. Trump had spent the 2016 campaign criticizing. He again absolved Mr. Putin of interfering in the United States election, despite the finding of American intelligence agencies that Moscow did extensive meddling. As for Mr. Duterte, Mr. Trump effused about their “great” relationship while saying nothing about the thousands of Filipinos who died in a campaign of extrajudicial killings as part of the Philippine president’s antidrug war. En route, he gave a verbal thumbs-up to the Saudi crown prince for arresting hundreds of senior officials and cementing control of the kingdom. (The New York Times)

“It is actually hard to believe how naive (or dumb) the Failing @nytimes is when it comes to foreign policy...weak and ineffective!” he later tweeted.