New York Times reporters Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman were offended that President Trump doesn’t like to watch CNN, using a leaked anecdote from Air Force One for a full-page story Wednesday: “A Bit of a Stir’ Aboard Air Force One: A TV Tuned to CNN.”
The headline writers went overboard. The text box: “A president who rages against reality wants to keep the remote control for himself.” The online headline: “Spotting CNN on a TV Aboard Air Force One, Trump Rages Against Reality.” So in Timesland, “reality” equals CNN?
On the first couple’s recent trip overseas, Melania Trump’s television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. President Trump was not pleased.
He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox -- his preferred network over what he considers the “fake news” CNN -- and caused “a bit of a stir” aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.
At the end of the email chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would be standard operating procedure going forward.
The channel-flipping flap was the latest example of how Mr. Trump, at a pivotal moment in his presidency, is increasingly living in a world of selected information and bending the truth to his own narrative. As his aides work to keep him insulated from the outside world, Mr. Trump is doubling down in his efforts to tell supporters to trust him over the words of critics and news reports.
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On Tuesday, the president effectively said black was white when he claimed without evidence that Russians would be helping Democrats -- but not him -- in the coming midterm elections. In January 2017, American intelligence agencies assessed that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election in an effort to help Mr. Trump.
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Over the weekend, Mr. Trump claimed with no evidence in a series of tweets that his administration’s release of top-secret documents related to the surveillance of a former campaign aide had confirmed that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. “misled the courts” in the early stages of the Russia investigation.
But the documents appeared to do the opposite. They presented in stark detail why the F.B.I. was interested in the former campaign adviser, Carter Page: “The F.B.I. believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government.” The documents also said Mr. Page had “established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers,” and had been “collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government."
Mollie Hemingway, who has followed the Russia investigation from the outset, has a more skeptical view of the FBI’s behavior at The Federalist, as does Byron York at the Washington Examiner. Ironic that one has to consult the right-leaning media for any criticism of domestic surveillance organizations.
The story ended with an odd criticism of a politician:
In the White House, little of the outside criticism breaks through. People who have worked for Mr. Trump say he tends to view everything through the lens of a battle. His goal is bring everyone over to his view.
As opposed to trying to bring everyone to his opponent’s view?
