Today the president ordered his new press secretary Sean Michael Spicer to conduct a press conference to ward off criticism of the media coverage of Inauguration Day. In an unscripted address that overstated the size of the crowd that gathered on the National Mall as Trump took his oath of office. Trump's press secretary said throngs “went all the way back to the Washington monument,” despite photos and live video showing the crowd stopping well short of the landmark.
The president also discussed his media criticism today as he stood in front of a memorial honoring CIA officers killed while serving the United States.
Trump’s decision to visit CIA headquarters just outside of Washington was aimed at making a public gesture to the intelligence officials he disparaged during the transition. Trump had repeatedly challenged the agencies’ assessment that Russia meddled in the presidential race to help him win and suggested intelligence officials were behind the leak of an unverified dossier that claimed Russia had collected compromising financial or personal information about him.`
During remarks to about 400 CIA officials, Trump went on a tirade as he denied that he had a feud with the intelligence community, saying it was “exactly the opposite.” He again blamed the media for creating that impression, despite the fact that he made numerous public statements critical of intelligence officials.
Trump called his feud with the media a "war," further inflaming his extreme anti-media rhetoric almost as similar to what he used while from the campaign trail.
“There is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and CIA than Donald Trump,” he said. “There’s nobody.”
"The president just tried to rally CIA workforce around the idea that media is the enemy. Let that sink in," wrote Mark Mazzetti, a Washington investigations editor at The New York Times.
"As you know, I have a running war with the media. They are amongst the most dishonest human beings on Earth," Trump said.
Gregg L. Greer a Public Speaker, Minister, Social Activist, and the Editor of the One World internet journal. Greer is the Founder of Freedom First International a human rights NGO. Greer writes commentary on Apolitical America, Huffington Post, Daily Kos and others-or listen to his radio podcast at OneWorld Talks -if you are interested in interviews from his and others of the brightest minds today, you can email him at oneworldtoday@gmail.com His website is www.gregglgreer.com