After agreeing to take meetings with journalists, President-elect Donald Trump says he’s “not looking for retribution” against the press, but warns if they don’t treat him fairly, “that will end.”
Despite calling for two networks’ broadcast licenses to be revoked and wanting a third to be investigated for treason on the campaign trail, now that he has been re-elected, Trump assured he has no plans to exact revenge on the media.
“I am not looking for retribution, grandstanding or to destroy people who treated me very unfairly, or even badly beyond comprehension,” he told Fox News Digital. But he also acknowledged that he “obviously” has “the upper hand at this moment.”
He added: “I am always looking to give a second and even third chance, but never willing to give a fourth chance — that is where I hold the line.”
The comment comes after Trump met with Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. The pair, who have been critical of Trump during his re-election campaign, said they hoped to “restart communications” with him.
During the meeting, Trump appeared “ cheerful,” “upbeat” and “interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues,” Brzezinski said.
After years of referring to news outlets as “LameStream Media,” “fake news,” and “enemy of the people,” the 78-year-old suggested that he has turned over a new leaf as he prepares for his second term.
He feels “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press,” he said before clarifying: “If not treated fairly, however, that will end.”
The president-elect continues: “The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.”
The remarks also come months after Trump made a fuss about how ABC News treated him during his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. He took issue with the network’s live real-time fact-checking.
“They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he told Fox & Friends at the time. Trump was fact-checked while on the debate stage as he amplified baseless claims that migrants were eating pets, the 2020 election was “rigged,” and Democrats supported abortions after birth.
He also took aim at CBS News for its 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, alleging the network deceptively edited it. Trump not only threatened to revoke its broadcast license, but also sued CBS last month.
The suit accuses the network of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to … confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.” The edits were made in an “attempt to tip the scales” in favor of the vice president to get her elected, the filing says.
Last September, he called for NBC to be investigated for “country threatening treason” in a Truth Social post.
In the same post, he offered an ominous message to the media broadly: “I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.”
