President Trump shared a video Sunday on Twitter of himself slamming WWE President Vince McMahon to the ground and punching him, with the CNN logo superimposed over McMahon’s head, escalating his recent attacks aimed at the news media.
The footage, taken from “WrestleMania 23” in 2007, shows Trump approaching McMahon outside of the ring, using a clothesline move to knock him down and punching him in the head before turning to walk away. A similar altered clip mocking CNN recently appeared on a Reddit.com message board.
The president’s tweet included a pair of disparaging hashtags: “#FraudNewsCNN” and “#FNN.” The video was also shared by the official @POTUS account.
“It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters,” the network said in a statement. “Clearly, [White House press secretary] Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so.”
The network added: “Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his.”
Trump’s latest Twitter assault comes three days after his controversial tweets attacking MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski’s appearance.
On Thursday, the president lashed out at Brzezinski with an unusually harsh personal attack aimed at both her and her co-host, Joe Scarborough.
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017
