The president appears especially irked by the growing narrative of Bannon as the real power in the White House.
President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out via Twitter at a series of news reports revealing the turmoil inside the White House, leaning on his crutch of “fake news” as he struggles to control a hardening narrative about a dysfunctional West Wing.
One of his missives came from Air Force One en route to Tampa, Florida, as Trump panned a New York Times report that detailed the friction inside his administration and its early stumbles.
“The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!” Trump tweeted at 11:32 a.m., ignoring the fact that many of his top advisers were quoted by name in the story.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer voiced Trump’s indignation during a gaggle with reporters on the return flight to Washington, D.C. Spicer, who was quoted in the report, pilloried the Times’ “so-called reporting” as “literally the epitome of fake news.”
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Trump himself had seemed particularly incensed by reports and parodies about chief strategist Steve Bannon being the actual decision-maker in the White House.
“I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!” Trump tweeted.
His tweet came at 7:01 a.m., 52 minutes after Joe Scarborough, whose MSNBC morning show the president is known to watch religiously, suggested that “maybe Bannon’s calling all the shots.”
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