On the heels of threatening to revoke NBC’s broadcasting license over the network reporting on a story about Trump allegedly telling his highest ranking security advisors back in July that he wanted “what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal,” the president is doubling down by taking a steaming dump on the First Amendment. During a visit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss NAFTA, Trump told reporters, “No, I never discussed increasing it, I wanted it in perfect shape, that was just fake news by NBC, uh, which gives a lot of fake news lately.”
“No I never discussed [that], I think somebody said I want 10 times the nuclear weapons that we have right now,” he continued. “Right now we have so many nuclear weapons, I want them in perfect condition and perfect shape, that’s the only thing I’ve ever discussed, uh, General Mattis is putting out a statement saying that that was fake news, it was just mentioned that way, and frankly it’s disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they wanna write, and … people should look into it.”
One would hope that Defense Secretary James Mattis has more important things to worry about than “fake news,” like the impending threat of North Korea, for example — however he did put out a written statement Wednesday afternoon that read: “This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible.”