On Friday, CNN, a news organization that purports to report serious news, breathlessly reported that when the news broke of the U.S. airstrike killing Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, President Trump was eating ice cream.
Really.
As Fox News noted, “CNN’s Kaitlan Collins penned a blog post headlined, ‘President Trump dined on ice cream as news of the airstrike broke,’ in which Collins wrote, “As meatloaf and ice cream were served, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. was behind the strikes, the only statement from the administration throughout the night.”
Collins then offered this comparison:
Putting this airstrike in perspective: The scene Friday was similar to the one after Trump gave the order for American forces to carry out the missile strike on a Syrian airfield in the spring 2017. After that strike, Trump went into great detail about the chocolate cake he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was there for a summit, when he informed him about the series of tomahawk missiles.
President Trump dined on ice cream as news of the airstrike broke https://t.co/iP5fbnSfDH pic.twitter.com/SmrqI6zN0Y
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 3, 2020
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham tweeted, “This should be a story about Soleimani planning imminent attacks on diplomats & how American lives were saved because of @realDonald Trump decisive actions.”
Fox News noted, “A current CNN employee told Fox News, ‘There are plenty of valid reasons to argue against targeting a high-ranking foreign government official. But our newsroom is so jaded and anti-Trump that it posted this tweet which lacked any journalistic merit.’”
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck commented,“Of course, it’s important to add ‘color’ to a story and if, say, there was a meeting and a reporter described who sat where to provide important context, that’s actually helpful. But this? It’s a stretch,”
CNN does seem obsessed with Trump’s ice cream intake; Jill Filipovic wrote a 2018 CNN op-ed in which she noted Trump “reportedly enjoys treating himself to an extra scoop of ice cream after dinner every night.” In May 2017, CNN covered a Time magazine report revealing the horrifying news that Trump got two scoops of ice cream when eating dinner with reporters. Fox News noted, “CNN’s often-sarcastic chyron even called the extra scoop of ice cream an ‘executive privilege.’”
In January 2019, CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza mocked Trump after he hosted the Clemson football team to the White House after they won the national championship and served them fast food. Trump paid for the massive meal out of his own pocket because of the government shutdown. Cillizza wrote:
I’ve written before about the oddity of Trump’s appeal to the average Joe — a very wealthy man who has lived in New York City his entire life and whose taste trends toward gold (or at least gold-plated). It seems like a very, very weird fit. Most people don’t live and work in a building they own. Or have silk draperies. And wine with their name on it. And, yes, steaks with their name on them.Part of the answer lies in fast food. Trump loves it. Revels in his love for it. And uses it — as he did Monday night — as some sort of stand-in for patriotism or America First-ism or, well, something.