President Donald Trump shut down the notion he enjoys press gaggles, telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity his frequent meetings with journalists are meant to “get the word out.”
Hannity floated the idea during his Thursday evening sit down with Trump on “Hannity,” noting that the American public watches the president “almost daily with the media.”
“And I think you enjoy it,” the veteran newsman said to Trump. “You bring them in, you have gaggles. You keep them there for a long period of time. Probably -“
At this moment, Trump cut off Hannity, clarifying, “It’s not that I enjoy [it].”
“You don’t enjoy it?” Hannity asked. “You seem like you do.”
Trump then doubled down on his stance, sharing, “No. Every question’s a kill, you know? They are always going for the kill, every question. You see these people with the hatred. “
He continued: “I say, ‘You have such hatred when you ask that question. Why? Because I have a strong border, a good military? Why do you have such hatred?’ The whole thing is crazy.”
Per Trump, it’s not that he enjoys the press gaggles, he participates so that he can “can get the word out” — suggesting it doesn’t otherwise.
While Trump took a moment to praise Fox News as “great,” he bemoaned his other press coverage, calling out the New York Times, in particular.
“But overall, if you read The New York Times, you’d actually think we are losing or not doing well in Iran,” Trump said. “I read these things, I see some of your other networks, the way they cover. They will take a massive military victory and make it like we should have done it faster.”
He later complained about the “horrible papers,” CNN, which he said was “destroyed,” and MS NOW, which he claimed had “no ratings.”
Watch his remarks above.
Trump’s comments are just the latest against legacy media, as he’s frequently criticized storied publications and their White House correspondents. In March, Trump slammed the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal for having, what he called, “a lot of bad stories.”
“We have to straighten out our media,” Trump noted at the time. “The New York Times circulation, you know, has gone way down. The Washington Post is almost extinct.”
Trump has also sued a number of media outlets, including The New York Times, the BBC and the Des Moines Register. Additionally, he’s faced backlash for his repeated verbal attacks against female reporters, slinging insults like “nasty,” “piggy,” “terrible,” “ugly” and “incapable” in their direction.
Last year, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended that “President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re-elected him for his transparency.”
