President Trump defended his decision to throw paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico this week, telling former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee that the crowd had demanded it.
‘They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,’ Trump told Huckabee in a sit-down with the ex-governor’s new Trinity Broadcasting Network. ‘And they were screaming and they were loving everything. And I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, “Throw ’em to me! Throw ’em to me, Mr. President!”‘
Trump said any criticism he received for being ‘disrespectful’ was ‘just a made up thing,’ attempting to again label negative coverage of his moves ‘fake news.’
‘The media is really, the word, I think one of the greatest of all times I’ve come up with is fake,’ Trump said, crediting himself with inventing either the word or the term.
The word has been around since the end of the 19th century, while even ‘fake news’ was referenced in newspapers in the 1890s, according to CNN.
President Trump defended his choice to playfully toss paper towels at hurricane victims last week, telling former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee that the crowd wanted him to do so
President Trump received criticism for looking out of touch when he visited Puerto Rico on Tuesday and threw rolls of paper towels at hurricane victims
President Trump (left) sat down with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (right) and boasted that he came up with the word or term ‘fake’ for the news
The president sat down with a friendly face, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is Trump’s White House press secretary
That was news to Trump.
‘Guess other people have used it, perhaps, over the years, but I’ve never noticed it,’ the president said.
On Tuesday, Trump took his first trip to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
Prior to the trip, Trump made headlines by publicly battling with the mayor of San Juan, who he suggested was calling attention and being ‘nasty’ about the problematic recovery efforts because she planned to run for governor of the U.S. territory in 2020.
However, on the day of the trip, Trump’s beef with Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was overshadowed by his antics at the hurricane relief distribution center in San Juan, as he joyfully tossed paper towel rolls around the room.
Widely considered tone deaf, Cruz, for her own part, deemed the moment ‘terrible and abominable.’
Trump suggested the locals loved what he did, a fact covered up by the mainstream media.
‘They were screaming and they were loving everything,’ Trump told Huckabee of the crowd.
‘And also when I walked in, the cheering was incredible,’ Trump added.
Huckabee, a friendly face, whose daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the White House press secretary, agreed with Trump’s version of events.
‘You were a rockstar, I saw the video of it,’ Huckabee said.
Trump agreed.
‘The cheering, it was deafening,’ Trump said.
Then he pointed a finger to news networks.
‘They turned down the sound, so you just heard the announcers,’ he said. ‘I mean look, the media is fake, in the meantime I’m here, it’s sort of amazing,’ Trump said, referring to his current White House post.
‘And I sometimes ask myself how did I ever get here with the horrible, unfair publicity?’ the president mused.
He went on to take credit for ‘fake’ and smack journalists around once again.
‘And it’s a shame,’ Trump said. ‘And they really hurt the country because they take away the spirit of the country.’