Trump Calls Federal Government 'Corrupt Cesspool'
Just when you think Donald Trump's attacks can't get more caustic or inclusive comes the self-described "wrecking ball" aiming at all of D.C.
The president is finding enemies all over Washington's "swamp," according to the latest rabble-rousing fund-raising email from the Trump-Pence campaign committee, sent midday Tuesday (Oct. 31).
Related: Trump Says Mainstream Media Out to 'Bring Down' Administration
Citing a Time magazine story about how Trump is dismantling the government "as we know it," the president wears the magazine's characterization of his cabinet as a "wrecking crew" as a badge of honor.
"The federal government is a broken, lobbyist-infested cesspool of corruption that abuses its power, cooks deals for crooked politicians, and despises hardworking Americans," Trump says in the e-mail, sounding a note somewhere between a progressive chest-thumper and a Bolshevik bomb-thrower.
The president says the country voted for a "wrecking ball" that would "obliterate the status quo," but that the people's will is being impeded by the revolt of those government swamp dwellers (now downgraded to "cesspool" dwellers) abetted by the news media, enemies of the people he is sworn to defeat.
"The Fake News Media will do anything to try to rip apart the strong bonds of our movement," Trump says, "But they will never succeed -- because we are fighting to save our country, and that’s a fight we will NEVER surrender."
Related: Pew Finds Partisan Divide Widening on Role of Media
The attacks appear motivated by a desire to marginalize the president's critics, which are legion these days, and whip up his financial and political base as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of a Trump-Russia connection continues.
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Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.