Touting his frequent attacks on the media, President Trump said in a new interview that his supporters like him more when he ramps up his “enemy of the people rhetoric.”
“It’s my only form of fighting back, I couldn’t be here if I didn’t do that,” Trump said in a segment of an interview with “Axios on HBO” when asked about whether he believes some might heed his message by resorting to violence.
The president was reminded of the significance of repeatedly using the word “enemy” to rile up his base as the most powerful man on Earth.
“I think I’m doing a service [by attacking the press] when people write stories about me that are so wrong,” he said. “I know what I do good and what I do bad. I really get it, OK? I really get it better than anybody in the whole world.”
Trump also was asked if people in his inner circle – including family members – have asked him to tone down his inflammatory rhetoric.
“Not too much,” he said. “Hey, I’m here! It got me here.”
Trump, who is in the midst of a campaign blitz of 11 rallies over six days before next week’s midterm elections, also said the Republican momentum was stalled by “two plots” – the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and CNN.
The president has blamed the media for anger that has turned deadly.
“If they would write accurately about me, I would be the nicest president you’ve ever seen. It would be much easier,” he told Axios.
“It’s much easier … for me to be nice than it is for me to be the way I have to be.”
In May, Lesley Stahl of the CBS program “60 Minutes” recounted a meeting she had with Trump after the 2016 election when he began attacking the press.
“I said, ‘You know, this is getting tired. Why are you doing it over and over? It’s boring and it’s time to end that. You know, you’ve won … why do you keep hammering at this?’” Stahl recalled.
“And he said: ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”
The full interview with Trump is scheduled to run on HBO on Sunday.
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