Trump Calls Journalists “Enemy Of The People” During Pennsylvania Rally Minutes Before Man Storms Into Media Section

A man attending a campaign rally for Donald Trump on Friday stormed the media section, attempting to climb up the side of the enclosed area, before being tasered by law enforcement on the scene, according to a video posted to social media by a reporter for CBS News.

Less than ten minutes before, the former president called journalists the “enemy of the people.”

Trump claimed that the New York Times is losing “reader after reader,” which brings him joy. “I have to be happy about that,” the Republican presidential nominee began, “because they truly are the enemy of the people. They are the enemy of the people. They tell false stories about me—that’s all they do is they write false stories.”

Earlier in the speech, Trump also directly went after CNN following the organization’s exclusive sit-down interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz a day earlier.

“It was a very weak interview from the standpoint of CNN. I think CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said before acting out how he would have responded to questions from the organization. The network’s interview with Harris and Walz was watched by around 6.3 million viewers on Thursday, according to the Nielsen data, almost double the 3.3 million viewers who tuned in for Trump’s CNN town hall in May of 2023.

As the incident was unfolding near the media section, Trump was again critiquing how the press is covering the 2024 election.

The former president appears to begin watching the interaction and says, “beautiful,” before repeatedly noting, “he’s on our side.” It’s unclear exactly how much of the situation Trump saw and if he was referring to the individual man’s actions or the response from law enforcement. Though, at the beginning of the situation, he smiled and said, “We get a little itchy, David, don’t we?” (Dave McCormick, who is running for US Senate in Pennsylvania, spoke at the rally.)

As the interaction with law enforcement continued on the rally floor, Trump transitioned to talking about the failed assassination attempt against him at another Pennsylvania rally in July, claiming that the man in question was holding up a symbol—the now-famous American flag “angel”—from that day.

At that event, moments after the initial shots rang out, some rallygoers turned against the media that had also just survived a mass shooting.

“Some people in the crowd started to come to the risers,” NBC’s Dasha Burns, who was reporting live from the Butler, PA rally, said at the time. “They started to get heated with the press … started blaming the press for what had just happened.”

“The level of distrust in the American media is unprecedented,” Reporters Without Borders wrote of the United States. “The disinformation affecting American society has created an atmosphere where citizens no longer know who to trust. Online harassment, particularly towards women and minorities, is also a serious issue for journalists and can impact their quality of life and safety.”

Trump using this incendiary language toward the press isn’t—by any means—new.

At a Michigan rally back in 2015, two presidential campaigns ago, Trump said that he hated some members of the press, but wouldn’t “kill them” after mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s treatment of the media. (Over a dozen journalists have been killed as of 2020 in “contract style murders” since Putin came into office, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.)

“They said he’s killed reporters,” Trump began, “and I don’t like that. I’m totally against that.”

Then, he continued, “By the way, I hate some of these people, but I’d never kill them. I hate ’em. No I think, these people, honestly, I’ll be honest, I’ll be honest, I would never kill them. I would never do that.” Trump then makes the balancing motion in his hand—the movement indicating maybe— “Ah, let’s see, eh, no, I wouldn’t,” he said, seeming to play into the crowd’s response.

From the time he announced his candidacy in 2015 to early 2021, Trump posted negative comments about the media more than 2,490 times on Twitter, according to a US Press Freedom Tracker database. Only counting online posts, Trump has called individual networks, the press, or “fake news” the “enemy of the people” tens of times.

And Friday, as the man who climbed onto the media section was taken away by law enforcement, Trump told the crowd, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”

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