President Donald Trump boasted of reducing public trust in the mainstream media as a result of his candidacy on Wednesday, saying he was "so proud" that he's been able to "convince people how fake it is."
A recent poll shows 46 percent of voters think the media fabricates stories about the Trump administration; that included 76 percent of Republican voters, and 85 percent of those who strongly approve of Trump's job performance.
In an interview with Fox Business host and supporter Lou Dobbs, Trump said he was treated "very unfairly" by the press in the campaign, but he felt once he won the election, he would start being treated well, "but they got much worse."
He reeled off CNN, MSNBC, NBC ABC and CBS as putting out stories that are "so false" and have sources "that in my opinion don't exist."
"It is so dishonest," he said. "It is so fake. And you know, I have come up with some pretty good names for people. I think one of the best names—you know, I've really started this whole fake news thing. Now they've turned it around, and now they're calling, you know, stories put out by Facebook fake, and they're fake. What could be more fake than CBS and NBC and ABC and CNN when you look at some of these stories?"
Trump said he'll turn to First Lady Melania Trump at night sometimes and say he'll look forward to watching television because he did "great" that day, but then the news will be "not so good."
He boasted of having 128 million followers on social media across various platforms and having the ability to put out the "real word."
"And people agree," he said. "If you look at the level of approval of ... general media, if you look at it from the day I started running to now, I'm so proud that I've been able to convince people how fake it is, because it has taken a nosedive."
"Fox has treated me fairly," Trump added. "And I don't mean good, but they've treated me fairly. I don't want to be treated good. I just want to be treated fairly."