White House Fights a Familiar Enemy: The Press

As the White House reeled on May 16 from a chaotic 24 hours, bookended by a pair of bombshell scoops raising serious questions about President Trump’s comportment in the Oval Office, the administration and its surrogates quickly settled on a blunt message: Blame the press.

Doing battle with journalists has become a frequent tactic of the Trump White House. But the conflict has been heightened this week, as aides to the president — and their supporters in the right-wing press — seek to shift focus onto questions about the use of confidential sources and the credibility of the news media, and away from concerns about Trump’s behavior.