Ronald Reagan’s daughter: My father would never have stood for Trump’s attacks on press

One of former President Reagan’s daughter’s is tearing into President Trump’s frequent attacks on the media, saying her father would never have stood for Trump’s anti-press rhetoric.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Patti Davis wrote that her father had his own problems with the media, often verbally sparring with reporters.

But he never resorted to name-calling or attacking a journalist, Davis wrote.

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“My father would have been the first to stand in the way,” she wrote.

Trump often prides himself on his contentious relationship with the media, which he calls the “enemy of the people.”

His anti-press rhetoric has “lit a match” for his supporters, causing them to also forcefully fire back against reporters, Davis noted. 

“I’ve tried to imagine what my father would have done if people attending a political speech of his had turned to the press and raised their middle fingers, hurled obscenities or physically menaced the reporters who were there doing their jobs,” Davis wrote.

“I found it difficult to conjure the image, and then I realized why. It simply wouldn’t have happened,” she continued. “The person on the podium, the person everyone has gathered to see, sets the tone.”

Davis wrote that she and others are “horrified by the vilification of the news media” and called on others to speak out against Trump’s attacks.

“Silence didn’t create this country; brazen, unwavering commitment did,” she wrote.  “And one of those commitments was to a free press — one not controlled or hampered by a demagogue who has a good day only when he’s being flattered.”

Davis has criticized Trump before, writing in June that her dad would be “appalled” by his presidency.

Trump has said that Reagan was his favorite president during his lifetime, and has shared old photos of him with Reagan.