The war between Donald Trump and the mainstream media in the United States is escalating by the minute, as both continue to go at each other's throats every day. And the President has once again added fuel to the fire, by encouraging his 24 million Twitter followers to "ignore accurate polls".
fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting," Trump said in yet another series of tweets attacking the mainstream media.
Responding to the tweet, CNN came out with a strongly worded article asserting that professional polling is scientific, not political, in nature and that polls by TV networks during the election were not "fake news." In fact, most national polls were not far off the mark.
However, the thread in Trump's tweet is a spectacle to behold, as it is filled by a string of journalists, anchors and analysts tearing into the President both through sarcasm and use of strong language.
His tweet came in the wake of a CNN/ORC poll on Friday, which found that most Americans opposed the travel restrictions that were put in place by Trump's temporary immigration restrictions on refugees.
On Sunday The New York Times, which is one of the President biggest targets, had published a story detailing the first two weeks of Trump's administration, including Trump signing an order giving chief strategist Steve Bannon a spot on the National Security Council.
The report said Trump was not fully briefed on the details of the order. To which the President responded with a fierce tweet on Monday.
"The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!,"
Trump's tweet also provoked widespread criticism. "This is bizarre behavior. Something is not right," Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from Texas, responded.
Another vocal Trump critic, the activist Deray McKesson, tweeted, "'Negative news = fake news' is the beginning of tyranny."
It came on the same morning that one of Trump's friends, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, was quoted in The New York Times saying, "I think, in his mind, the success of this is going to be the poll numbers."
At last Friday's White House briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer was asked about Trump's low approval ratings, to which he responded with a comparatively cheerful poll.
"I think there's also a Rasmussen poll that showed he had a 51% approval rating," Spicer said.
Spicer, on Friday, did not decry the polling data as "fake news," but instead predicted it would improve.
"The president understands this is a marathon, and not a sprint," Spicer said. "And as he continues to get people back to work, protect this country, I think the poll numbers will act in accord.
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