President Donald Trump, in a wild Truth Social post, has unleashed on a CNN commentator who was mean to him.
Trump, 79, started his Monday morning by posting about Van Jones, the political commentator and lawyer. Trump made clear in his 143-word meltdown that he regrets backing Jones on criminal justice reform.
“Nobody else, including Obama, who tried to for years, could have done this!” he declared, before revealing the petty reason he has chosen to speak out.
“Now I watch this guy, Van Jones, every chance he gets, calling me a ‘Dictator,’ and far worse. He should be ashamed of himself!!!” the president raged.
Trump, a self-confessed TV junkie, appears to have once again proved that he is always watching the big networks, including CNN, despite his professed hatred for it.
In one of Jones’ latest missives, on NewsNight with Abby Phillip last week, he declared that “Nobody is afraid of Donald Trump anymore.”
In his Truth Social post, the raging president said that Jones had called him a “dictator.” Jones hasn’t said this for over a year, a Daily Beast analysis has found.
The main thrust of Trump’s latest social media meltdown was that he was unhappy that Jones had been criticizing him because he had helped Jones in the past. Essentially, Trump sees any dissent as a lack of loyalty.
“When a devastated (he was crying like a baby!) Van Jones of CNN came to me with a group of African American leaders, he had ‘DEAD’ in getting Criminal Justice Reform approved in Congress. Van Jones and these Black reps had been unsuccessfully fighting to get ‘Reform’ for many years,” Trump wrote.
Trump is referring to the First Step Act of 2018, a landmark bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed by President Trump. Van Jones, through his organization #cut50, pushed hard for it, and it got over the line with Trump’s help.
Trump is now admitting, in retrospect, that he didn’t even value the bill, but signed it anyway. “He was just wasting everyone’s time - Needed 5 Conservative Senators - there was no chance, or even hope, for a win. I liked some of the people he was with, agreed with what they were saying, and quickly rounded up the votes needed to get CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM approved. It was NOT easy!” he said.
His missive against Jones comes as Trump and his cronies speak out against other dissenters. ABC News personality Jimmy Kimmel has riled the administration with some ill-timed jokes of late, while Trump generally fires off against late-night hosts and publications who don’t agree with him.
Trump has weaponized the Federal Communications Commission and set its chairman, Brendan Carr, against channels that don’t fall in line.
