CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta has cautioned how Donald Trump’s attacks on news organizations that report critically on his administration could become a blueprint for future presidents, even a Democratic one.
“To our friends in conservative media, Anderson, I say this, it is no guarantee that you get to stay in power forever,” Acosta warned on Monday’s broadcast of “Anderson Cooper 360°.”
“Another administration could come in and do the very same thing to them and say, well, Donald Trump did it. Guess what, we’re going to do it to you guys, too,” Acosta added.
Cooper asked “when the shoe’s on the other foot, if they’re gonna like that?”
Trump has repeatedly disparaged journalists and media outlets that criticize him ― CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times are among his favorite targets ― calling them “the enemy of the people” on Twitter.
Primetime hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson on the widely watched conservative network Fox News, meanwhile, regularly stump for Trump and push his agenda.
Acosta revealed he wanted to “take the big-picture view” with his new book “The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America” and ask “is this the kind of country we want to hand off to the next generation?”