The Press Is Not The Root of Trump’s Problems

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President Trump is going through a rough patch—in foreign relations, in the economy, in the courts, and in election outlook—and he believes that he has found the culprits: CNN, MS NOW, and Politico .

On Friday, Trump said he was banning the three outlets from the White House “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS” and warned that more bans could come.

When he feels beleaguered, he tends to lash out at familiar enemies, especially reporters.

The idea that negative coverage is to blame for his predicament is perversely flattering.

But Trump’s true scourge is reality, not how the news is covering it.

Although the decision is part of a gradually intensifying attack on free speech, as I noted last month , it has drawn particular pushback.

This morning, five major TV networks (including Fox News) agreed to suspend pool coverage of the president and White House events after CNN was blocked from its previously assigned spot in a pool rotation today.

The three banned outlets also sued over their exclusion.

How such a suit will fare is unclear; Trump banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool last year after it refused to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and a lawsuit challenging the ban is still pending .

After Trump committed a Kinsley gaffe on Friday by calling his move “the ban on the free press,” he tried to clean up his spin this morning.

“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish.

It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS,” he wrote , claiming that it “is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” This is nonsense.