Washington, Mar. 15, (dpa/GNA) – US President Donald Trump on Friday described critical coverage of him by major US media as “illegal” during a speech at the Justice Department in Washington.

He added that TV stations such as CNN or MSNBC “who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal.”

He referred to MSNBC as MSDNC in reference to the Democratic National Committee, the leadership board of the party, claiming that the network was part of the party, which it is not.

Trump criticized the networks and newspapers as being no different from highly paid political actors, saying that their critical reporting of him was coordinated among themselves. He argued that this should be illegal as it influences judges.

For years, Trump regularly referred to established media as enemies of the people, accusing reporters of spreading lies and threatening to revoke the licences of unfavourable channels.

Since taking office, Trump has revoked access to the presidential office and plane for reporters from the US news agency AP. The reason given was that AP had refused to use the term “Gulf of America,” which Trump had introduced by decree for the Gulf of Mexico.

The White House also broke with decades of tradition by removing the authority of the independent journalists’ association of accredited White House correspondents to determine the composition of the correspondents’ pool that accompanies the president.

At the same time, since taking office, Trump has granted access to the White House to numerous right-wing media outlets, influencers, bloggers and podcasters. The White House refers to these as “new media.”

GNA