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Trump Threatens NBC Over Nuclear Weapons Report - The New York Times

posted onOctober 12, 2017
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened on Wednesday to use the federal government’s power to license television airwaves to target NBC in response to a report by the network’s news division that he contemplated a dramatic increase in the nation’s nuclear arsenal. In a story aired and posted online Wednesday morning, NBC reported that Mr. Trump said during a meeting in July that he wanted what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, stunning some members of his national security team. It was after this meeting that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson reportedly said Mr. Trump was a “moron.” Mr. Trump objected to the report in a series of Twitter messages over the course of the day and threatened to use the authority of the federal government to retaliate. He repeated his complaint later in the day, when reporters arrived in the Oval Office to cover his meeting with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. “It’s frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write and people should look into it,” Mr. Trump said. Asked if he favored limits on what the media can say, he answered, “No. The press should speak more honestly.” But then late in the day, he returned to the theme of punishing media organizations. “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Not fair to public!” For Mr. Trump, atta... Link to the full article to read more

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