Trump takes time out of G-7 meeting to lash out at media

President Trump repeatedly took aim at media coverage of him during his meeting with the Group of Seven (G-7) countries in France over the weekend as he faces international blowback from tariffs leveled against China and the specter of a possible recession.

The topics the president tweeted were misrepresented by news media included discussions with world leaders in Biarritz and his reference to himself as the “the chosen one” to negotiate with China on trade.

“When I looked up to the sky and jokingly said “I am the chosen one,” at a press conference two days ago, referring to taking on Trade with China, little did I realize that the media would claim that I had a ‘Messiah complex.’ They knew I was kidding, being sarcastic, and just having fun,” he tweeted Saturday, the day he arrived in France for the summit.

{mosads}”I was smiling as I looked up and around. The MANY reporters with me were smiling also. They knew the TRUTH…And yet when I saw the reporting, CNN, MSNBC and other Fake News outlets covered it as serious news & me thinking of myself as the Messiah. No more trust!” he added.

Hours later, Trump tweeted, “The Media is destroying the Free Press,” seemingly quoting Fox New radio personality Mark Levin.

He lashed out at the news media again on Sunday morning, accusing it of trying to hurt his reelection chances. 

In a set of tweets, he said that fears of a recession and tense relations with other G-7 nations were being given outsize coverage to hurt his approval rating.

Soon after, he claimed that news outlets were “rooting” for the U.S. to fail.

After meeting with the leaders of some G-7 member nations, he asserted that many of them had asked, “Mr. President, why does the American media hate your Country so much? Why are they rooting for it to fail?”

Later in the day, Trump tweeted, “We are all laughing at how knowingly inaccurate the U.S. reporting of events and conversations at the G-7 is.”

To prove his allegation that the media had been misrepresenting the summit, Trump quote-tweeted a member of a Canadian far-right political and social commentary media website called The Rebel.

No, we actually had a very good and productive meeting. Nice! https://t.co/aXeUWcPTc1

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2019

Trump has escalated his attacks on the media recently as the economy has shown signs of a potential recession.

After stocks suffered their biggest drop of the year earlier this month, Trump tweeted, “The fake news media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election.”

Trump departed for France directly after the tit-for-tat trade war between the U.S. and China escalated further with the announcement of new tariffs on $500 billion in Chinese goods, triggering a drop in U.S. stock markets.