President Donald Trump has defended his persistent use of social media in a series of tweets, following a row over comments he made about MSNBC presenters Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
The president tweeted on July 1: “My use of social media is not presidential – it’s modern day presidential.”
Earlier in the week, Donald Trump launched a crude personal attack on Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.
The president’s tweets were condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike, despite the White House springing to his defense.
President Trump’s aides have previously expressed concern over his tweets.
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However, Donald Trump said on July 1 that social media gave him the opportunity to connect directly to the public, bypassing the mainstream media, whose content he regularly labels as “fake news”.
The resident tweeted: “The FAKE & FRAUDULENT NEWS MEDIA is working hard to convince Republicans and others I should not use social media.”
He added: “But remember, I won the 2016 election with interviews, speeches and social media.”
Donald Trump also stepped up his attack on CNN after the network retracted an article alleging that one of the president’s aides was under investigation by Congress.
“I am extremely pleased to see that @CNN has finally been exposed as #FakeNews and garbage journalism. It’s about time!”
The story that caused the upset, which was later removed from the website following an internal investigation, resulted in the resignations of three CNN journalists: Thomas Frank, investigative unit editor and Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Lictblau and Lex Harris, who oversaw the investigations unit.
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Donald Trump has repeatedly called CNN “fake news” and has previously labeled Buzzfeed a “failing pile of garbage”.
At a news conference in February, President Trump was introduced to the BBC’s North America editor, Jon Sopel, to which he responded: “Here’s another beauty.”
Meanwhile, addressing military veterans at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington on July 1, President Trump promised that America would “win again”, prompting cheers from the crowd as he attacked media outlets.
“The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them,” Donald Trump said at the Celebrate Freedom Rally.
“The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president, and they’re not.”
President Trump has more than 33 million followers on Twitter. Although it is becoming seemingly more difficult for the president to shock this audience, his 140-character posts have been condemned by both politicians and commentators.
Some consider the language used by President Trump as unsuitable for the holder of the highest office. On June 30, the New York Post published a three-word editorial on Donald Trump’s tweets: “Stop. Just stop.”
It followed the president’s tweets on June 29 mocking MSNBC Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski, saying she had been “bleeding badly from a facelift” when he saw her six months ago.
Donald Trump also verbally attacked her co-host and partner, Joe Scarborough, describing him as “psycho Joe”.
Mika Brzezinksi and Joe Scarborough hit back, accusing the president of an “unhealthy obsession” with them”. They alleged the White House had tried to blackmail them into apologizing for their show’s negative coverage of President Trump.
Despite the criticism, Donald Trump stepped up his attack on Mika Brzezinksi on July 1, calling her “dumb as a rock”.
