Trump claims press is enemy of the American People, naming NYT, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN

President Trump posts on Twitter: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" The tweet, posted February 17 at 4:48 PM, follows a combative 77-minute press conference the day before where Trump called the media "very fake news." Trump deletes an earlier version of the tweet that omitted ABC and CBS before posting the final version. The phrase "enemy of the people" — with roots in Soviet and Nazi propaganda — is the first time a sitting U.S. president has applied the term to the American press. The Committee to Protect Journalists begins tracking Trump's "enemy of the people" language; he uses the phrase or variants at least 20 times publicly between 2017 and 2020. The same language appears in a note left by Cesar Sayoc, the MAGAbomber, and is cited by media watchdogs as adding to the climate in which journalists face threats. The International Federation of Journalists condemned the tweet as an attack on press freedom.