President Donald Trump is lashing out at Morning Joe—again.
On Thursday morning, the president, whose history with the show includes a decade of breakups and makeups, accused host Joe Scarborough of a “Major Campaign Violation” for critiquing his approach to placing tariffs on Chinese goods.
The post came just minutes after the MSNBC show ran a segment discussing the president’s recent comment that he’s considering cutting tariffs on Chinese goods to 80 percent from the current rate of 145 percent.
Scarborough said he believes Trump’s handling of the tariffs is “all showbiz,” advising viewers not to panic about changing tariff rates because “It’s all symbolism. It’s all getting where he wants to get, a month from now, two months from now, or six months from now.”
“I just don’t think the details right now matter,” said Scarborough of Trump’s fluctuating rates. “This is the start of a symbolic process.”
Scarborough’s guests, NBC business analyst Stephanie Ruhle and New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin, gave similar assessments. Sorkin said that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the American and Chinese governments acting “like everything is fine and they love each other,” when in reality, a trade deal will likely take months or even years to iron out.
Ruhle then said the president was “backed into a corner” and “looking for an exit” because his tariffs “aren’t working.” Both guests agreed with Scarborough’s theory that the tariffs on China may face significant changes in the coming weeks as the president attempts to recover from his drastic initial approach.
Just 19 minutes after the Morning Joe segment, Trump took to Truth Social for a typo-riddled rant in which he claimed MSNBC, which he called “the worst there is on Television misrepresentation,” was conducting a “Major Campaign Violation” in its coverage of him.
He also took aim at Ruhle, who he said “was never known as a “High IQ” person.”
“I just watched an exhausted, highly neurotic Stephanie Ruhle spew LIES about Tariffs, as do many others, in order not to give me the Victory that they all see coming,” he posted on Truth Social. “Few people know Stephanie Ruhle, but I do, and she doesn’t have what it takes. Our Deal with the United Kingdom yesterday was AMAZING for both Countries and, in addition to everything else, British Airways just ordered $10 Billion Dollars worth of new Boeing planes.”
Trump also accused the network of being “nothing less than an arm of the Democrat National Committee,” and said, “their untruths are incredible, real losers.”
Of course, MSNBC is not a branch of the Democratic National Committee, the opinions of its hosts are not statements on behalf of the DNC or a particular campaign, and comments like Scarborough’s are protected under the First Amendment. But none of those tidbits stopped Trump from calling for the network’s head. “Their ratings are down the tubes,” wrote the president, “but that pressure on them doesn’t give them the right to lie and cheat!”
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