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Trump: 80 Percent of the Press Is Fake News

Getty Images
August 22, 2018

President Donald Trump said roughly 80 percent of the media was "fake news" in an interview Wednesday, calling the New York Times in particular a "crazed" outlet.

"Fox & Friends" host Ainsley Earhardt interviewed Trump at the White House and asked him about his oft-repeated attack that the "fake news media" is the "enemy of the people."

"Is the press the enemy of the people?" Earhardt asked.

"No, not at all, but the fake news is, and the fake news is comprised of—it's a lot. It's a big chunk," he said. "Somebody said, 'What's the chunk?' I said, '80 percent?' It's a lot. It's a lot. If I do something well, it's not reported, other than in the 20 percent."

"I mean, the New York Times cannot write a good story about me," he added. "They're crazed. They're like lunatics."

Trump and the mainstream press have been at odds throughout his campaign and presidency. Journalists have taken exception to his "enemy of the people" charge; at one point, CNN correspondent Jim Acosta demanded White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders say the press was not the enemy of the people from the podium.

At a rally this month, Trump called the press the "fake, disgusting news" and said reporters were "horrendous people."

Trump's sit-down with a White House-friendly program like "Fox & Friends" comes after one of the most tumultuous days of his presidency.

His former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight crimes and implicated him in a campaign finance violation on Tuesday, the same day his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts in a fraud case brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.