In a series of Twitter messages posted Sunday, President Donald Trump addressed the two major issues that appear to be affecting his administration and his loyal base’s support of him and his policies: the failure to get funding for the border wall through a government shutdown, and the negative media coverage that resulted from it.
“Never thought I’d say this,” the president began the first in the series of tweets, “but I think [John Roberts] and [Gillian Turner] of [Fox News] have even less understanding of the wall negotiations than the folks at fake news CNN & NBC! Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19 percent with Hispanics?”
Trump then went on to boast about his administration’s alleged accomplishments, claiming to have personally helped the veterans, installed 99 judges and two justices, rolled back regulations and lowered taxes, improved the economy, energy, trade, “and much more.”
“Does anybody really think I won’t build the wall?” the president asked.
Trump concluded the second Twitter message by claiming to have “done more” in the first two years of his presidency than any of his predecessors.
Tweeting about his accomplishments while watching Fox News and criticizing the media is nothing new for President Trump. As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, numerous analyses have indicated that Trump and the conservative network act in coordination, and that the president often watches — and live-tweets — Fox News coverage while at the White House.
Reports have suggested that Trump and Fox News appear to be stuck in somewhat of a “feedback loop,” as the president is often caught live-tweeting and quoting the network’s most popular anchors’ words. Trump’s tendency to parrot Fox News talking points is perhaps best demonstrated by a viral Media Matters video, which shows the president directly repeating Sean Hannity’s talking points.
“Prisoner of his own impulse”: Inside Trump’s cave to end shutdown without wall https://t.co/db2hTlBGxN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 27, 2019
It may be out of character for Donald Trump to criticize Fox News, like he has in his latest series of Twitter messages, but given that many of the president’s allies appear to be turning against him following the shutdown fiasco, the fact that Trump is putting Fox News in the same category as CNN and NBC is perhaps telling in and of itself.
“Did Trump Cave on the Wall? Some Conservatives Say Yes” reads the headline of a recent New York Times report which quotes a number of right wing and conservative journalists, pundits, and social media personalities, criticizing and calling the president out for “caving” and reopening the government without getting funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
