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Although we’re only a month into his administration, so far Donald Trump has not been a cheap president. Taxpayers have essentially been shelling out for three White Houses, including Trump Tower where First Lady Melania Trump resides with Barron which costs $500,000 per day to protect, and the so-called “Winter White House” Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump’s weekend jaunts tallied up $10 million and counting just three weeks into his presidency.
Given that Trump often criticized President Obama for taking vacations, this seems more than a bit hypocritical, as panelist Karine Jean-Pierre correctly noted during a CNN segment with Don Lemon late Friday night — also pointing out that Trump continues to profit off of his businesses while in office (Mar-a-Lago recently doubled its initiation fee). Lemon then turned over to conservative political commentator Paris Dennard to gather his thoughts on the subject, who responded bluntly: “I think this is fake news. This is not– this is not a news story.”
After some back and forth, Lemon asked his guest, “Okay Paris, let me ask you this … do you actually know what the definition of fake news is?” He went on to explain with this mic drop:
Let me explain to people out there watching what fake news is. Fake news is when you put out a story to intentionally deceive someone and you know that is it wrong. I don’t know of anybody that has put out a story in the mainstream media that I can think of right now to intentionally deceive anyone. People get things wrong, sources are sometimes empty, but no one that I know has put out anything to intentionally deceive someone. This story that we’re doing right now is not to intentionally deceive anyone. We are simply talking about the cost to keep a president safe, the Secret Service cost, and what are the pros and the cons, and as Andre said, if there are ways we can maybe work on that to make it fiscally better for the American people. There’s nothing fake about that. Please stop it with that stupid talking point that it is a fake news story. If you don’t want to participate in the news stories on this network, then don’t come on and participate, but don’t call them fake because you don’t agree with them.
Infuriatingly, Dennard responded, “Don, this is a fake news story and my opinion, because the underlying assumption is–” but at that point Lemon cut him off and shut down the segment altogether. Both Trump and his supporters have been increasingly using the term “fake news” as a way of delegitimizing the mainstream media.