President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the independence of the media, declaring that it is "frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write."
"People should look into it. … The press should speak more honestly," Trump said. "I've seen tremendously dishonest press. It's not even a question of distortion."
The president was reacting to an NBC News report that he pushed senior aides for a major expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Earlier in the day, Trump on Twitter dismissed that report as "pure fiction" and raised the possibility that he would support stripping the broadcast licenses of news networks that report what he believes to be inaccurate information.
"I know the capability that we have; believe me, and it is awesome, it is massive, and when they make up stories like that that's just made up," Trump said. "They have their sources that don't exist, in my opinion they don't exist. They make up the sources."
Trump's tweets came after NBC News reported that Trump purportedly told senior national security advisers during a meeting last summer that he favored what amounted to nearly a tenfold increase in nuclear weapons. NBC reported that Trump's reaction over the nuclear stockpile came after senior advisers showed him information charting its steady decline in numbers since the 1960s during the meeting in July.
"Fake NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!" Trump tweeted.
The comments drew criticism that the president was using the power of his office to undermine First Amendment guarantees of free speech and free press. And, in fact, the networks themselves — and their news departments — do not hold federal licenses, though individual affiliates do.
"Broadcast licenses are a public trust," said Tom Wheeler, who until January was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. "They're not a political toy."
The New York Times contributed to this report.
