Acting U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Kari Lake told Newsmax on Wednesday that the media’s outrage over President Donald Trump’s testy exchanges with reporters this past week only proves how deeply the press fears losing control of the narrative.
In an interview with “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Lake said Trump’s responses weren’t nearly strong enough.
Lake told host Rob Schmitt that Trump speaks the same way millions of Americans do when they watch journalists push what she called dishonest narratives.
“President Trump is like the guy at home yelling at his TV set when he hears these ridiculous reporters,” she said. “They’re not even reporters, they're propagandists. ... There’s not enough disdain that you can muster up for the members of the fake news that have lied to us nonstop for years.”
Trump stirred media outrage last week when he referred to a female reporter as “Piggy,” then escalated tensions again this week by blasting ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce over a question she asked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump dismissed Bruce as “a horrible, insubordinate” reporter and called her question “terrible.”
Lake said the mainstream press has spent years dividing the country and working to undermine Trump, while ignoring major stories that don’t fit their agenda.
“It’s not the stories they’re telling; it’s the stories they’re leaving out,” Lake said, arguing that omissions are now the media’s most powerful weapon.
Lake also pointed to a moment during Trump’s first term, recalling how “the media threw a fit” when he sought to broaden the White House press pool to include more independent and non-establishment journalists.
She said legacy outlets fought the change because “if they can control the questions being asked, they control the narrative.”
That dynamic, she argued, is shifting dramatically as Trump moves into his second administration.
Lake praised the influx of nontraditional reporters now gaining access to the briefing room and asking questions the public actually wants answered.
“We’re getting a much wider variety of stories,” she said. “Reporters who represent real Americans are finally in the room.”
As for Trump’s recent pushback against hostile questioning, Lake said she supported every word — but would have gone further.
“I agree with President Trump ... I didn’t find it harsh enough,” she said. “He could have used even more harsh words for these absolutely objectionable human beings who have done a terrible job and have divided our country.”
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