President Donald Trump was far from pleased this weekend by the coverage he was receiving from one of his favorite cable news networks. Trump was angry with Fox News reporter John Roberts and anchor Gillian Turner about their coverage of his handling the ending of the 36-day shutdown of the Federal Government.
Trump did not pull any punches in his open attacks on the two Fox News personalities.
“Never thought I’d say this but I think [John Roberts] and [Gillian Turner] [Fox News] have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN [and] NBC! Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?” Trump wrote Sunday.
“After all that I have done for the Military, our great Veterans, Judges (99), Justices (2), Tax & Regulation Cuts, the Economy, Energy, Trade [and] MUCH MORE, does anybody really think I won’t build the WALL? Done more in first two years than any President! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump responded just a few minutes after his first Tweet.
So, what caused President Trump to lash out at Fox News? Well it began with a exchange on Fox News Sunday, as guest host John Roberts questioned White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
“So did the president here cave to Democrats?” Roberts asked Mulvaney. “I think a lot of Republicans think that he capitulated here because he really came away from 35 days of a government shutdown with nothing more than he could have had at least two weeks ago when Senator [Lindsey] Graham proposed the same thing, and maybe even back to before this whole thing started.”
Mulvaney defended President Trump and made it clear that at least from the White House, they did not see Friday’s action as in any way “Caving in to the Democrats.”
Trump was very quick to Tweet his displeasure at how Fox News was framing his reopening of the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, many members of the conservative media went after President Trump over the weekend for what they saw as a moment of weakness by ending the “Shutdown,” without any firm action that he was going to get his border wall.
To be fair President Trump kept two of his biggest supporters on his side at least for a while.
Now let’s see what happens after February 15th and the deadline.