President Donald Trump has been firing up his base for two years calling the mainstream media “fake news” and reporters the “enemy of the people.”
But in a seeming break with her father, first daughter and Assistant to the President Ivanka Trump was asked Thursday at an event with Axios at the Newseum in Washington D.C., whether she thinks "the media is the enemy of the people." "No, I do not," she said.
"I've certainly received my fair share of reporting on me personally that I know not to be fully accurate, so I have some sensitivity around why people have concerns and gripe, especially when they're sort of targeted," Trump said. "But no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people."
Her father weighed in as he was leaving the White House for a rally in Pennsylvania later Thursday, saying she said the right thing.
"They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!" Trump said on Twitter.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also asked at the afternoon press briefing on Thursday about Ivanka Trump's opposing statement on the media, but Sanders did not soften the president's heated rhetoric, saying, instead, that he is "rightly frustrated" with the way his administration has been covered and the way he's been portrayed by the mainstream media.
Sanders said she understands the president’s position because the press “has attacked me on a number of occasions.”
"The media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration, and certainly we have a role to play, but the media has a role to play for the discourse in this country as well," she said when pressed about Trump's continued accusations that reporters are the "enemies of the people."
At a rally in Pennsylvania Thursday night, the president continued his attacks on the press.
The Associated Press reported that Trump called the media "fake, fake disgusting news," and implied that journalists were his true political opponents.
About the Author
