Trump on International TV Coverage: “We Ought to Start Our Own Network”

President Donald Trump said Thursday in a speech that his administration is considering starting an internal broadcast network to counter the dominance of CNN around the world.

“CNN is a voice that really seems to be the voice out there, and it’s a terrible thing for our country, and we ought to start our own network and put some real news out there because they are so bad for our country,” Trump told a crowd in Florida. “They are so bad for our country. I go out there and they say, ‘Boy, the media hates your country.’ And it’s just a shame.”

The president then made clear that his proposal was a serious one: “And we really are. We are looking at that. We should do something about it, too. Put some really talented people and get a real voice out there, not a voice that’s fake.”

Trump explained the difference between CNN U.S. and CNN International to the crowd, which was assembled for a speech about Medicare. “CNN outside of the United States is much more important than it is inside the United States,” he said. “And, a lot of what you see here is broadcast throughout the world. We used to have Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. We did that to build up our country, and that’s not working out too well.”

The president also called CNN “corrupt” and said, “They don’t get it, do they? They’ve never got it. Some idiot at CNN said, ‘You can’t win without CNN.’ I guess we showed them. I guess we showed them. And their ratings are so low now that they are no longer the big difference at all. They have really bad ratings.”

Criticism of CNN has become an almost daily occurrence for Trump, even in formal settings. The president ended a press conference with the president of Finland on Wednesday by saying, “We would be far greater when we don’t have the CNNs of the world, who are corrupt people.”

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