Ex-Official Flags ‘Throwaway’ Trump Line That’s Way More ‘Ominous’ Than It Sounds

Trump first-term official Miles Taylor on Tuesday highlighted a “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” line from Donald Trump that he said serves as an “ominous” warning about the president’s ongoing attacks on the media.

Trump, aboard the USS George Washington in Japan, told troops: “You need a good, fair media. They’re getting better. They’re not there yet. That I can tell you. But they’re getting better.”

Watch from the 44:15 point here:

“It was a throwaway line for the cameras but an obvious signal to his friends and supporters,” Taylor wrote in his Substack email. “The president was nodding to his state-sanctioned media takeover.”

Trump “is less than a year into his effort to use the powers of the presidency to pressure the free press into becoming a ‘pro-Trump’ press — whether through threats and lawsuits or corporate mergers — and he’s already seeing the fruits of that campaign. To him, it’s just the beginning,” said Taylor, citing the tilt to the political right at CBS News.