PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Christmas Eve retweeted a doctored image with the CNN
logo imposed on a bloodlike splatter under his shoe, prompting an
outcry — with critics deeming the picture and its timing offensive.
The
image had originated from a Twitter account named “oregon4TRUMP”, as a
reply to one of Trump’s tweets boasting about his first-year
achievements.“So many things accomplished by the Trump
Administration, perhaps more than any other President in first year,”
Trump had tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “Sadly, will never be reported
correctly by the Fake News Media!”
“Thank you President
TRUMP!!” oregon4TRUMP replied, adding an apparently altered image of
Trump in the back of a car with the crushed CNN logo on the sole of his left shoe. The image had additional text superimposed on it that read, “WINNING”.
On
Sunday morning, in between tweets promoting a conspiracy theory about
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and attacking “Fake News” and “Fake
Polls”, Trump retweeted the image to his more than 45 million followers.
The
tweet compelled Walter M Shaub Jr, former director of the independent
Office of Government Ethics, to again break a self-imposed holiday
Twitter hiatus to admonish the president. Shaub resigned from his post
in July amid clashes with the White House, and he has since been an
outspoken critic of Trump on social media.
“The wannabe autocrat just retweeted an image depicting CNN’s
blood on the sole of his shoe,” Shaub tweeted on Sunday. “These colicky
tweets reveal he’s hurting this weekend. They make him [and our
country] look weak.”
Joe Walsh, a conservative radio host and former Republican congressman from Illinois, also criticized Trump for attacking CNN — and the FBI — on the morning of Christmas Eve.
“Mr
President, put your phone down. It’s Christmas. Quit attacking people
on Twitter,” Walsh tweeted. “Grow up sir. Have you no sense of decency?
Go spend time with your family.”
CNN anchor Jake
Tapper noted Trump’s tweet with a simple observation: “CNN-labeled
blood on the sole of his shoe. Retweeted by the President of the United
States on Christmas Eve.”
In response to Tapper, Jason
Osborne, a former Trump campaign adviser, defended the image and accused
Tapper of “[making] everything about your network”.
The image was of a bug because it “clearly has eyes”, Osborne insisted. He also argued that Trump may not have noticed the CNN logo at the bottom of his shoe and retweeted the picture because he liked the way he looked in it.
Tapper replied: “The president retweeted an image of blood labeled ‘CNN’ on the sole of his shoe. I noted it. Trump Adviser now faults me for ‘making this about’ CNN. God bless us, everyone.”
Trump
has had a contentious relationship with the press since his campaign,
regularly lashing out at certain media outlets — even individual
journalists — and accusing many publications and news stations of being
“fake news”. CNN has regularly been the subject of Trump’s attacks, on Twitter and in speeches. Earlier this month, after CNN
apologised for mistakenly reporting the timing of a WikiLeaks-related
email, Trump used the error as an opportunity to attack the network
again.
“CNN apologised just a little while ago,” Trump said at a rally in Pensacola, Florida. “They apologised. Oh, thank you, CNN. Thank you so much. You should’ve been apologising for the last two years.”
Sunday’s tweet was not the first time that Trump has shared a doctored image on Twitter, particularly related to CNN.
In July — on another Sunday morning, just before Independence Day —
Trump tweeted an edited video clip that showed him slamming a man with “CNN” superimposed on his head to the ground. In the video, Trump then throws punches at the man’s head, before walking away.
Trump appended the tweet with two hashtags: “#FraudNewsCNN” and “#FNN”.
That
tweet prompted a round of condemnation from mostly Democratic
lawmakers, who blasted Trump for being “crude, false, and
unpresidential”.
In September, a few days after the
racially charged unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a car
ploughed into counter-protesters rallying against white nationalists and
killed a woman, Trump retweeted an image of a train running over a CNN reporter. “Fake news can’t stop the Trump train,” the image read. It was later removed from Trump’s account.