Donald Trump calls media 'the enemy of the American People'

The president's attack on media outlets continues.

ByABC News
February 17, 2017, 9:22 PM

— -- Donald Trump took aim Friday at one of his favorite targets, the media, calling a number of news organizations the "enemy of the American People!"

"The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" he wrote.

The message was actually the second version of the tweet. The first, which was deleted, was posted at 4:32 p.m. and only included three media organizations, capped off by the word "SICK!"

That full tweet read: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @CNN, @NBCNews and many more) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people. SICK!"

The next version was posted 16 minutes later and added ABC News and CBS to the list.

Trump's attacks on the press are not new. His complaints about the media were a common thread of his campaign rallies, and he regularly pointed to the press pen at his events, lambasting reporters as "the most dishonest people."

The tweets come one day after he held a press conference in the White House where he criticized the media repeatedly.

"Many of our nation's reporters and folks will not tell you the truth. And will not treat the wonderful people of our country with the respect that they deserve. And I hope going forward, we can be a little bit different and maybe get along a little bit better if that's possible. Maybe it's not, and that's okay, too," Trump said at the press conference on Thursday.

"The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people," he said.

Trump is not alone in his White House in expressing a distaste for the media. Steve Bannon, the president's chief strategist, has called the media "the opposition party."

The Society of Professional Journalists condemned Trump's Friday tweet.

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