President Donald Trump called it ‘disgusting’ the the media is able to ‘write whatever they want’ and even suggested it was something that should be looked into.
Buffeted by reports of chaos in his administration and lashing out online at ‘fake news,’ the president continued to dismiss and NBC report that he sought a ten-fold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal as wildy off the mark.
He slammed the story when asked about it in the Oval Office Wednesday, then teed off on the press generally.
‘And it’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it,’ Trump said.
President Donald Trump went off on the media and said it was ‘frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want’
He did not elaborate on what exactly people should be looking in to.
Asked a few minutes later whether there should be limits placed on the press, the president appeared to backtrack, resorting to general media bashing.
‘No, the press should speak more honestly. I mean, I have seen tremendously dishonest press. It’s not even a question of distortion, like the question that was just asked before about ten times the nuclear capability,’ Trump said.
‘I know the capability that we have, believe me, and it is awesome. It is massive. And so when they make up stories like that, that’s just made up. And the generals will tell you that,’ the president said.
Then Trump went after the anonymous ‘sources’ that have formed the basis for an astonishing number of accounts from inside the administration, having himself been known during his time in New York real estate to impersonate a source within his company.
‘People should look into it,’ the president said, after venting that the press get to write ‘whatever they want’
‘And then they have their sources that don’t exist. In my opinion, they don’t exist. They make up the sources. There are no sources,’ Trump said.
He ripped an NBC News report that Trump told his top generals that the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal should be beefed up by a factor of ten, an observation that shocked senior military officers.
During the July meeting that led to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling the president a ‘moron’ – another piece of NBC reporting that the White House has ridiculed – Trump was shown a slide presentation that depicted America’s nuclear stockpile diminishing during the past five decades.
‘No, I never discussed increasing it,’ Trump said, seated alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He ripped an NBC News report that Trump told his top generals that the U.S. military’s nuclear arsenal should be beefed up by a factor of ten
President Donald Trump (R) welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 11, 2017
‘I want it in perfect shape. That was just fake news by NBC, which gives a lot of fake news lately,’ he said, in a possible reference to the the network’s report last week that Tillerson had called the president a ‘moron’ after a Pentagon meeting.
‘No, I never discussed. I think somebody said I want ten times the nuclear weapons that we have right now. Right now we have so many nuclear weapons. I want them in perfect condition, perfect shape. That’s the only thing I’ve ever discussed,’ Trump said.
[Defense Secretary] General Mattis put out a statement, or is putting out a statement, saying that that was fake news, that it was just mentioned that way.’
‘And it’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it,’ the president continued.
The president slammed an NBC story that claimed he said he wanted a huge increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal
Mattis called the story ‘absolutely false,’ and said: ‘This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.’
Trump added that he believed a ten fold increase would be ‘unnecessary.’
‘No, I want to have absolutely perfectly maintained – which we are in the process of doing – nuclear force. But when they said I want ten times what we have right now, it’s totally unnecessary. Believe me, because I know what we have right now.’
‘We won’t need an increase, but I want modernization and total rehabilitation. It’s got to be in tip-top shape,’ the president said, of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was heard calling Trump a ‘moron’ after the July meeting where the president said he wanted the U.S. nuclear stockpile to grow back to Cold War numbers, NBC reported
This 2014 file photo shows an inert Minuteman 3 missile in a training launch tube at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota; the base maintains 150 nuclear-tipped missiles spread out across the North Dakota countryside and keeps them ready to launch at a moment’s notice as part of the US nuclear defense strategy
Trump is ‘all in for modernization’ of America’s nuclear weapons program, according to one person in the July meeting; some underground missile command consoles still look like something out of a Cold War movie set
Trump also tweeted about NBC Wednesday morning.
‘Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal,’ Trump wrote. ‘Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!’
CNN has until recently been the president’s favorite target for accusations of broadcasting ‘fake news.’
Eleven minutes later, Trump tweeted a warning shot that appeared to threaten action by the Federal Communications Commission: ‘With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!’