President Donald Trump spoke today at Davos—the annual gathering of the ultrawealthy—and the crowd offered a somewhat mild rebuke of his stance on the matter of “fake news.”
“It wasn’t until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be―as the cameras start going off in the back,” Trump said during his remarks.
As he spoke about the cameras going off—a reference Trump has made about networks cutting him off mid-speech, something that hasn’t happened—some in the crowd booed the president.
According to one reporter present, at least some of the booing came from a foreign reporter.
Foreign journos sitting next to me booed Trump’s attack on the press.
— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) January 26, 2018
The few boos that came were in contrast to moments earlier, when the crowd enjoyed a bit of levity from the president.
“I’ve always seemed to get, for whatever reason, a disproportionate amount of press,” Trump said to laughter.
While that’s true, Trump’s railing against “fake news” came at an awkward time. Although the president had just called reports he considered firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller “fake news,” even Trump’s staunchest ally in the media confirmed it was true.