by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
The war between Donald Trump and the “fake news” media is ongoing and eternal, but in an extensive interview with Time magazine, the president seemed to up his game. The 57-minute-long interview, which touches on topics from the 2020 race to tensions with Iran, is peppered with Trump’s own degradations of Time, which he calls “bad,” a “disgrace,” and “absolutely incredible” (not in a good way).
“With all I’ve done, with the tremendous success I’ve had, that Time magazine writes about me the way they write is a disgrace, okay?” he said at one point. “Let’s face it, it’s a disgrace. And some day within the next 20 years, maybe you’ll pick me as Man of the Year. Okay, big deal,” he prognosticated.
He later added that the press was “protecting the DNC, the Democrats, crooked Hillary,” called several articles in Time “so bad, it was unbelievable,” and hoped aloud that if he wins reelection, “I might even make the Time magazine cover again. Maybe. I doubt it. But maybe.”
Of course, that’s all standard Trump. More shocking was the moment when he appeared to threaten Time’s photographer. At one point, the photographer took a picture of a letter to Trump from Kim Jong Un, and though Time agreed to Sarah Sanders’ request that the contents of the letter be off-limits, Trump didn’t let the incident go, lashing out during a heated line of questioning about the Mueller investigation:
TRUMP: Excuse me—Under Section II—well, you can go to prison instead, because, if you use, if you use the photograph you took of the letter that I gave you—
TIME: Do you believe that people should be—
TRUMP: Confidentially, I didn’t give it to you to take photographs of it—so don’t play that game with me. Let me just tell you something. You take a look—
TIME: I’m sorry, Mr. President. Were you threatening me with prison time?
TRUMP: Well, I told you the following. I told you you can look at this off-the-record. That doesn’t mean you take out your camera and start taking pictures of it. Okay? So I hope you don’t have a picture of it. I know you were very quick to pull it out—even you were surprised to see that. You can’t do that stuff. So go have fun with your story. Because I’m sure it will be the 28th horrible story I have in Time magazine because I never—I mean—ha. It’s incredible.
It’s been a while since Trump has threatened his perceived enemies with imprisonment, a trend dating back to his promise to “lock up” Hillary Clinton; former FBI director James Comey; and at one point, Snoop Dogg. “I look at what’s happening with the Justice Department, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her dossier,” he raged during a radio interview back in 2017. Unfortunately, even he seemed to acknowledge the futility of this wish: “You know as president, and I think you understand this, as a president you’re not supposed to be involved in that process.” Yet apparently, hope springs eternal.
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