President Donald Trump turned his ire to Fox News reporters over their coverage of the border wall negotiations.
"Never thought I’d say this but I think [John Roberts] and [Gillian Turner] have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC!" Trump tweeted, referring to two of the network’s correspondents.
"Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?" he wrote.
It’s unclear what coverage Trump was referring to, though Roberts filled in for host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday earlier in the day, where he grilled White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on the shutdown.
“Did the president here cave to Democrats?” Roberts asked. “I think a lot of Republicans think he capitulated here because he really came away from 35 days of a government shutdown with nothing more he could have had at least two weeks ago when Senator Graham proposed the same thing and maybe even back to before this whole thing started?”
“No, I think what you’ve seen here is the president seeing an opportunity,” Mulvaney replied. “Why he did what he did was because many Democrats had come to us, some of them privately, many of them spoke out publicly, that they are actually starting to agree with him on the necessity for a barrier on the southern border, and they had come to us and said 'Look, we agree with you, you’re winning the battle on the importance of a barrier on the southern border, but we simply cannot work with you while the government is open, excuse me, while the government is closed.’”
Trump hits back at Ann Coulter too:
Trump also hit out at conservative commentator Ann Coulter after she called him a “wimp” for caving in the shutdown negotiations.
“I hear she’s become very hostile,” Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Maybe I didn’t return her phone call or something.”
The comment came after Coulter tweeted, “Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”
Trump increasingly isolated:
Referring to Trump’s comments about Fox and Coulter, The Washington Post’s Isaac Stanley-Becker wrote, “Together, the swipes represent one more piece of evidence that the dawn of divided government has put Trump in a dangerous and defensive political position, compounded by the indictment Friday of his longtime associate Roger Stone. They show just how much he depends on positive punditry and other forms of approval. And they telegraph his sensitivity to criticism, particularly from people he has identified as friends, loyal to his often-dubious claims.”
“A lasting fissure could have untold consequences for his presidency, which relies on right-wing media for policy ideas as well as for the rosy picture of his White House that it paints for its audience,” he added. “Across the political spectrum, though not without some predictable dissenters, he was judged the loser of the high-wire maneuvering over the shutdown, bested by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Meanwhile, his approval rating took a dive, down to 37 percent in a Washington Post-ABC poll released Friday.”
