Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for US President in June 2015, his relationship with the media, especially journalism, has been terrible at best.
He has repeatedly called the media “fake news” and has derided journalists at every corner. However, these past two weeks have been explicitly worse than usual.
It all started on October 3rd, when the world first heard about the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
As we know now, Khashoggi was murdered by 15 Saudi men, who are very likely to be connected to the Saudi royal family. The event caused international uproar and how did the US President respond? Silence.
It took six days for Trump to even make a comment on the event, and the comment was not really much of anything. Trump said “I know nothing. I know what everybody else knows.”
It was a surprising show of restraint for Trump, who isn’t really known for waiting for evidence before making a statement. When the rest of the world was calling for punishment for the Saudi government, the United States remained silent.
When Saudi Arabia eventually did admit that Khashoggi died and released results of an investigation that most of the world scoffed at, Trump took the results at face value and did not question anything.
In the midst of all this, Trump held a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana on October 18th. During the rally, Trump decided to lavish praise on Congressman Greg Gianforte (R- Montana At Large), who body slammed a journalist during his election bid last year for asking him a question on healthcare. Trump said this of Gianforte: “Any guy that can do a body slam… he’s my guy.” and “Greg is smart. By the way, never wrestle him.”
Combine this with Trump’s labelling of the media as the “enemy of the people,” Trump does not respect the media or even cares about them. Trump did not care if a journalist died because he spoke out against a government, because Trump allied himself with the Saudi government. Trump does not care if a Congressman assaulted a journalist for asking a tough question, because he and the congressman are members of the same political party.
One can only hope that Trump’s treatment strengthens journalists and aspiring journalists across the country to continue their work.
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