United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that he may challenge the licences of NBC News Network and other broadcast networks in the country, which he accused of reporting fake news. In a tweet, Trump lashed out at NBC News, claiming that the network had “made up” a story that he wanted a tenfold increase in the United States’ nuclear arsenal.
“Pure fiction, made up to demean,” Trump said, comparing NBC News to CNN, which he has accused of reporting fake news in the past.
The United States’ Federal Communications Commission renews licences to individual broadcasters in the country, but not to broadcast networks, Reuters reported. The commission has said that it cannot censor news networks because of the first amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.
Quoting three unidentified officials, the NBC News report had said that Trump made the demand for a tenfold increase in nuclear arsenal during a meeting with his security chiefs on Tuesday, after being shown a slide that charted the steady reduction of US nuclear weaponry since the late 1960s. The network said that the security chiefs explained to the president the legal and practical impediments to a nuclear buildup.
Although the White House did not reveal details of the meeting, it said in a press statement that Trump discussed “a range of options to respond to any form of North Korean aggression”.
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