Trump calls ‘fake news’ the country’s biggest enemy

President Trump on Wednesday declared that the nation’s “biggest enemy is the Fake News,” particularly NBC and CNN for their coverage of the North Korea summit.

“So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN,” Trump tweeted.

“They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have ‘begged’ for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”

So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018

Tuesday’s summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim Jong Un was the first ever meeting of a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader.  

During the meeting, Trump and Kim signed an agreement on denuclearization, with details to be worked out in subsequent negotiations. On Tuesday, Kim reportedly accepted Trump‘s invitation to visit Washington, D.C.

CNN and NBC have long been targets for Trump’s attacks on the media along, with The New York Times and The Washington Post. His tweet on Tuesday echoed a comment made last year, in which he called the news media “the enemy of the American people.”

The agreement signed on Tuesday reaffirmed Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization while committing the U.S. to unspecified security guarantees for North Korea. Exactly what those security guarantees are remains murky, but Trump announced that he would suspend joint military exercises with South Korea. 

Pyongyang has long claimed that those military drills are essentially rehearsals for an invasion of the North. 

The document signed on Tuesday gives virtually no details beyond a stated commitment to denuclearize, a promise North Korea has made — and broken — many times in the past.