On Monday, President Donald Trump signed in to law his revised travel ban after his original executive order was shut down by a federal appeals court. While Trump put pen to paper, members of the media were banned from covering the event, as the tension between the press and the White House continues.
Trump vs Media
When Donald Trump announced his campaign for president back in June 2015, he was quickly at odds with the mainstream media when he referred to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers." Since then, the former host of "The Apprentice" has engaged in an almost daily war of words with press, who he refers to as "terrible" and "dishonest." Following his election win over Hillary Clinton, Trump has increased his attack on the media, labeling them "fake news" in an attempt to deflect from his own issues in the White House.
One of the most controversial aspects of Trump's short time as president has been his "Muslim ban" executive order, which received heavy backlash from the American people, the media, and even a federal judge. As seen during a March 6 broadcast on CNN, one host is not happy that Trump banned reporters from covering the signing up his updated travel ban.
The latest travel ban put in place by Donald Trump is his latest attempt to water-down his original intention. The revised order takes Iraq off the list of restricted countries, while also exempting green card and visa holders. In response to the news, CNN host John King ripped into the president for banning reporters from the signing.
"We won’t show you the picture of the president signing the executive order that’s incredibly important to his administration," King said, explaining that the network has a "policy that you cannot have canned press release pictures from a White House."
"You have to let the reporters in," John King went on to say, before stating, "The president is a big boy. He doesn’t have to answer questions if they’re shouted at him." Not stopping there, King confirmed "they (White House) wouldn’t let anyone in" because Trump "believes his predecessor (Obama) somehow wiretapped him during last year’s campaign."
Unfounded attack
John King's comment are in reference to the unverified tweets that were sent out by Donald Trump over the weekend where he accused former President Obama of finding a way to engage in wiretapping at Trump Tower. As of press time, Obama and his former aides have denied the allegations, while the Trump administration has yet to provide any credible evidence to back up the claim.