US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has launched a fresh attack on the media, saying that journalists should not be allowed to use anonymous sources in news reports.
Addressing a raucous crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, Trump took aim at what he described as “fake news” reports about his administration, saying any report based on an anonymous source was “fake news”.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name,” the US president said.
Trump labelled organisations that used anonymous sources as “enemy of the people”.
His remarks were in response to legitimate news reports by US outlets based off anonymous sources from within Trump’s own administration.
Various outlets have reported on turmoil within various US agencies and bodies since Trump took over, often quoting sources from within the agencies themselves.
In many cases, sources will request anonymity in order to safeguard their jobs and speak more freely.
“They have no sources,” Trump told the assembled crowd.
“They make them up when they have none.”
I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It’s fake, phony, fake.
In response, Christina Wilkie of the Huffington Post tweeted an example of the White House recently using anonymous sources in a briefing.
Trump also attacked pollsters, mentioning CNN, NBC and CBS among others by name.
He also referred to CNN as the “Clinton News Network” to loud cheers from the crowd.
“You’d think they’d fire the pollster … Maybe they’re just bad at polling, or maybe it’s not legit,” he said, in reference to polls that have gotten projections wrong.
Promises
In a wide-ranging speech, Trump appeared to be back in campaign mode as he listed off various promises he had made during his election campaign.
In reference to his plans to build a border wall between the US and Mexico, Trump said the planned construction was “way ahead of schedule”.
“We’re going to build the wall – it’s going to start soon,” he said.
In reference to immigrants in the US, Trump said that the country was “getting the bad ones out”.
“Those are the ones, they go first and I said it from day one,” he said.
Basically all I’ve done is keep my promise.
Trump also mentioned plans to cut taxes, increase jobs, and “reduce violent crime” – all promises he had made while running for office. He spoke about repealing the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) saying that it “didn’t work”.
His speech was frequently interrupted by the crowd, who cheered loudly and broke into chants of “USA, USA, USA” at various times as Trump talked.
Trump said there was lines of people outside the centre in Maryland for “six blocks”.
At one point, when he mentioned his former election opponent Hillary Clinton, the crowd broke into chants of “Lock her up. Lock her up!”
Trump also made reference to Sweden, after comments he made last week about a supposed incident there angered many people in the Scandinavian country.
“I took a lot of heat on Sweden” he told the crowd.
And then a day later take a look at what happened in Sweden.
He also referenced attacks in Germany and France to reinforce the need “keep America safe”.
The US president closed his speech by promising:
“We are Americans and the future belong to us. The future belongs to all of you.
It’s going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before.
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