President Donald Trump appeared to be dissatisfied with the return of CNN and MS NOW to the White House press corps as reporters shouted questions to him in a flurry as he stood alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Reporters yelled questions as the two heads of state and their wives stood Friday in front of the South Lawn of the White House, the morning after Trump hosted Xi for a lavish state dinner.
The president’s facial expression gave away that he was annoyed to have the press back shouting questions during their exchange, as the bulk of this state visit has been undertaken without pool coverage as a result of the ban, which was overturned by a DC judge on Thursday.
“Mr. President, did you call on President Xi to stop buying oil from Iran?” one reporter shouted. Another yelled, “Why are you banning media outlets?” None of the parties responded.
Another reporter asked, “Should U.S. taxpayers pay for ads about you, Mr. President?” in response to a campaign-style ad that the U.S. government released that played on Fox News earlier this week, which promoted how his administration would “defeat communism, socialism and Marxism.”
Last week, Trump attempted to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.”
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow,” he said at the time.
Trump would later verbally attack CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins when she tried to ask him a question when he visited the United Nations. The decision to ban journalists led to major television networks to halt their coverage of the White House.
The White House would respond by creating Trump TV, but the feed received low ratings. US District Judge Tim Kelly later ordered the White House to lift its ban on the outlets.
The Trump administration would later reluctantly reinstate the credentials for the three outlets. But reporters said they were blocked from covering Xi’s arrival at the state dinner.
Still, despite all of the criticism of media coverage, president would praise coverage from the press during a tea meeting with first lady Melania Trump, Xi and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan.
“We've made great strides very positive for both countries,” he said. “So thank you very much. And we appreciate the fair coverage. It's been very fair. We appreciate it.”
The president had hosted Xi for a summit to discuss AI. The president has attempted to rebrand AI as “super intelligence,” saying that there need not be any major guardrails for it. On Friday, he posted on Truth Social that Xi agreed with him.
“Tremendous things will be happening. Like almost everyone else, he seemed to like calling the poorly and inaccurately named Artificial Intelligence to a far more accurate and important name, SUPER INTELLIGENCE. That would be ‘SUPER!’”
