President Donald Trump kicked Tuesday off with a stunning declaration: he believes he should be “immune from criticism.”
Trump announced his expectation in an unusually-early, wide-ranging tweetstorm attacking the free press, including The New York Times, Paul Krugman, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” CNN, and Chris Cuomo. He also attacked the social media platform Twitter and the “Radical Left Democrats.” Starting at 5:59 AM he posted 12 tweets in rapid-fire succession in under two hours.
The President said he longed for the “old days,” when, “if you were President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism.”
That’s entirely false on all counts, including that Trump is presiding over “the greatest economy in history.” He is not.
Bloomberg last August ranked the Presidents by GDP growth. President Bill Clinton had the greatest economic performance under that standard, yet he was roundly criticized, and even impeached. Presidents Reagan, Carter, and Ford, along with Clinton, all had their share of criticism, yet their economic performances were all better than Trump’s.
Trump’s other tweets falsely attacked Nobel Prize-winning NY Times economist Paul Krugman as “stupid,” “highly inaccurate,” and “obsessed with hated.”
He again called The New York Times “the Enemy of the People!” and suggested they “get down on their knees & beg for forgiveness.” He also once again lied that the Times had “apologized” to him after the 2016 election.
Minutes later, Trump called Democrats the “Radical Left,” and “totally insane.”
He praised Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” while trashing its competitor, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,’ who he called “Morning Psycho.”
And in a babbling, incoherent rant, Trump went after “discriminatory” Twitter:
He concluded with more lies:
And then, simply, this:
UPDATE: 11:30 AM ET –
So, to sum up…