Trump Says 'Very Dishonest Press Does Not Want to Report' on Terror
The president made the claim during a speech to troops in Florida.
— -- President Trump on Monday lambasted the "dishonest press" for what he says is an unwillingness to report on terrorist attacks.
"We have seen what happened in Paris, Nice, all over Europe," Trump said while speaking at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida in his address to U.S. service members. "It has gotten to a point where it is not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press does not want to report it."
Trump did not specify any particular incidents that had been omitted from coverage.
"They [the press] have their reasons, and you understand that," he said.
During a subsequent press gaggle aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Sean Spicer appeared to double down on the president's claim, saying there were several instances of the media under-reporting terrorist attacks.
"There's a lot of instances that have occurred where I don't think they've gotten the coverage it's deserved and I think that's what the president was clearly referring to there," Spicer said.
Spicer did not offer any specific examples at the time, but said he believed that while some attacks or foiled attacks "barely [get] coverage," extensive reporting has been done on some protests against the Trump administration.
Included in a list of attacks that the White House provided Monday evening were the Paris attacks in November 2015, San Bernardino, in December 2015, Brussels in March 2016 and Nice, France in July 2016.
Those incidents, each with multiple casualties, were among dozens of attacks the White House listed between September 2014 and December 2016.
"The point here is that these terrorist attacks are so pervasive at this point that they do not spark the wall-to-wall coverage they once did," a White House spokesperson said.
During his brief remarks at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, the president seemed to make reference to his executive order banning immigration and visas from seven Muslim-majority nations that is currently the subject of a number of legal challenges.
"We need strong programs," he said, adding that "people that want to destroy us and want to destroy our country" must be kept out.
Trump went on to defend NATO while simultaneously saying members of the alliance were not making "full and proper contributions."
Echoing President Ronald Reagan, Trump said the U.S. military should be guided by the mantra "Peace Through Strength," before repeating his campaign refrain "America First."
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