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Detroit Free Press Editorial Board 7:04 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2017

Donald Trump stands to profit handsomely from the presidency says Mike Thompson in his latest animation. Mike Thompson/Detroit Free Press

In this Feb. 17, 2017 photo, President Donald Trump speaks while visiting the Boeing South Carolina facility in North Charleston, S.C. As President Trump begins his second month in office, his team is trying to move past the crush of controversies that overtook his first month and make progress on health care and tax overhauls long sought by Republicans.(Photo: Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

There's a name for a government that bars media outlets it views as unsympathetic from access to its workings.

It's not "democracy."

Just ask White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, as someone did in December, shortly before Spicer accepted his current post as President Donald Trump's proselytizer-in-chief.

During the campaign, Trump had revoked the credentials of reputable outlets media outlets at will, sometimes for weeks on end. Asked whether the White House would continue that practice, Spicer scoffed at the notion:

"Look, there's a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity," he said. "I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government. That is something you can't ban an entity from. Conservative, liberal or otherwise, that's what make a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship."

But that was December.

On Friday, hours after his boss had resumed his slashing attack on the press in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Spicer barred the New York Times, the L.A. Times, BuzzFeed, Politico and CNN -- established mainstream news agencies with longstanding White House credentials -- from a scheduled media briefing. The right-leaning Breitbart, Washington Times and One America News were admitted, as were representatives of several other mainstream media outlets approved by the White House.

It's true that press conferences rarely offer profound insight; journalists' most valuable reporting is most often done elsewhere. But such briefings provide insight into the administration's decision-making andagenda, and offer journalists an opportunity to obtain statements on the record. And there's a greater principle at stake.

It'seasy to dismiss Spicer's move as another puerile provocation in the new administration's campaign to cast itself as the people's champion in a war with the establishment press. But as Spicer himself observed, this is not how elected leaders do business in democracy whose constitution explicitly protects the press from government retaliation.

Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties, Dean Baquet, executive editor of The Times, noted in a statement. The White House Correspondents Association, which represents the press corps, condemned the administration for its action, and reporters for the Associated Press and Time magazine, who were invited to participate in the briefing, boycotted it in protest of their colleagues' exclusion.

At best, the unprecedented exclusion of reputable news organizations for the presumed crime of reporting aggressively and skeptically on the administration's activities was an impulsive (and ill-considered) ploy to curry favor with CPAC, with whose membership the new president is anxious to establish his anti-establishment bona fides.

At worst, it's an premeditated attackon an institution this nation's founders recognized as integral to the democratic process -- a first strike by a would-be authoritarian uncomfortable with the checks and balances established by the Constitution and reinforced by more than two centuries of American jurisprudence.

That's the same Constitution President Trump took a solemn oath to uphold last month. He can begin to honor that commitment by reminding himself that the White House he seeks to run like a private country club is not his house, but the American people's. It is the people's interest the White House press corps exists to protect, and the press corps' continued access to the operations of the executive branch that the new president is obliged to protect if he takes his oath seriously.

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Donald Trump's latest step toward tyranny - Detroit Free Press

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, poked fun at Donald Trump on Friday, after the American president claimed that Paris is no longer Paris, because, he said, lax border security had permitted foreign terrorists to infiltrate the French capital and change its character.

Speaking to a gathering of conservative political activists in Maryland, Trump argued that terror attacks and violent crime in Europe stemmed from a failure to acknowledge that national security begins with border security.

Foreign terrorists will not be able to strike America if they cannot get into our country, Trump said. He then contrasted this with violence in Sweden, Germany and France he attributed to the migration of radical Islamic terrorists to those nations. The president seemed unaware of the fact that terrorist attacks in Europe have mainly been carried out by native-born extremists, not immigrants.

To reinforce his claim about the supposed harm to French society, Trump cited a friend he identified only as Jim, who told the president he stopped making annual trips to the French capital four or five years ago because Paris is no longer Paris.

The remark came as Trump sought to justify his executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations that have no association with deadly terrorist attacks in the U.S. It also seemed to echo the racist rhetoric of French nationalists who claim that immigrants from the countrys former colonies have changed its character.

Trumps decision to cite his friend Jim as an expert on Paris set off a round of trans-Atlantic mockery which the citys mayor quickly joined in on.

Hidalgo was at the Eiffel Tower for the launch of a tourism campaign in association with Disneyland Paris when Trump made his remarks. In response, she addressed a tweet to the American president and his friend Jim showing herself and a Disney executive celebrating the attractiveness of Paris with Mickey and Minnie.

Hidalgo also pointed out that reservations by American tourists for 2017 were up by 30 percent from a year ago.

That statistic contrasts sharply with a reported drop in foreign tourism to the United States, which by the travel writer Arthur Frommer attributed to Trumps attempt to ban travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

The founder of Frommers Travel Guides wrote on the companys website Thursday:

Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income.

Its known as the Trump Slump. And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it.

Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an official travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all.

A drop of that magnitude, if continued, would reduce the value of foreign travel within the U.S. by billions of dollars, Frommer observed. And the number of jobs supported by foreign tourists and their expenditures in the United States and thus lost would easily exceed hundreds of thousands of workers in hotels, restaurants, transportation, stores, tour operations, travel agencies, and the like.

Later on Friday, the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, noted on Twitter that, even without Trumps friend Jim, 3.5 million American tourists had visited France last year.

Earlier in the day, Ayrault and Uzra Zeya, the Charg dAffaires of the U.S. Embassy in Paris, had attended the ceremonial planting of a tree donated to the French nation by the September 11 Museum in New York, to commemorate victims of terrorism in both countries.

Top photo: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo at a news conference in the French capital on Nov. 21, 2016

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Mayor of Paris Trolls Donald Trump and His Friend Jim - The Intercept

President Donald Trump kicked off his Friday by attacking the U.S. intelligence community once again. He lashed out at the FBI, tweeting that the agency is totally unable to stop national security leakers.

Trumps outburst comes hours after CNN and The Associated Press reported that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus had asked the FBI to publicly dispute reports that the presidents team had communicated with Russian officials throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.

FBI director James Comey reportedly refused to comply with the request because of the agencys ongoing investigation into Trumps associates and their potentially illegal links to the Kremlin.

Comey was criticized after he decided just days before the 2016 election to reinvestigate the emails of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Though the investigation didnt turn up any damning new information, Democrats have said that it damaged Clintons election chances.

The White House has repeatedly denied allegations that Trump associates kept constant communicationwith Russian officials during the campaign, as first reported by The New York Times and CNN this month.

Trumps Friday tweet didnt deny accusations that the White House attempted to meddle in the FBIs investigation, but instead took aim at FBI leakers who could have a devastating effect on the U.S.

The target of the presidents attack appears to be misdirected as the APreported that a White House official leaked Priebus request for the FBI to squash the reports.

The U.S. intelligence community has found itself increasingly at odds with the Trump administration. Following Lt. Gen. Michael Flynns resignation as national security advisor this month for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about communication he had with a Russian ambassador in December, Trump launched an attack on leakers within U.S. intelligence.

From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked, Trump said at a February news conference. Its a criminal action, criminal act, and its been going on for a long time before me, but now its really going on. And people are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton.

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Donald Trump Is Once Again Going To War Against His Own Intelligence Agencies - Huffington Post

Donald Trump got elected the 45th president of the United States thanks to one simple word: Change.

Voters desperately wanted something different than politics as usual and the same old politicians. Trump represented that something different. Hillary Clinton didn't.

The exit polls from 2016 tell that story powerfully. Nearly 4 in 10 exit poll respondents said that a candidate who can bring about real change was the most important quality in making up their minds. Trump won that group 82 percent to 14 percent over Clinton. Game, set, match.

"Change" is, of course, a very nebulous idea. It means very different things to different people. And one person's idea of the right change that needs to come to Washington might not necessarily or ever be another person's idea of it.

Now that Trump has been president for a month and people have gotten the chance to see what he meant by "change" (travel ban, building the wall, etc.) many of them don't seem to like what they are getting.

CompareQuinnipiac University polling from right after the election to now. In the immediate wake of the election in November, 46 percent of voters said that Trump represented the "right" kind of change, while 33 percent said he represented the "wrong" kind of change. In a Q poll this week, 38 percent said Trump represented the right kind of change, while 45 percent said he was bringing the wrong kind.

President Trump emphasized the importance of "conservative values" and prioritizing the well-being of Americans over global interests during his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 24. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

And it's not just Quinnipiac with results like that. Take McClatchy-Marist University polling. In December, 44 percent said Trump represented change for the better, while 34 percent said he represented change for the worse. Now 44 percent say he is making changes for the worse, and 40 percent say his changes are for the better.

Those numbers should be concerning to Trumpworld. The central question of his presidency and particularly his chances of being reelected is whether voters believe he delivered on the change they voted for. That was always going to be a tough challenge because as I noted above change means different things to different people. And Trump was very, very vague about what exact changes he would institute, making it even tougher to figure out how to measure success or failure.

What is clear: Trump needs to be on the "right" side of change for his own political fortunes. And right now, he's not.

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Why it matters that Donald Trump is losing the 'change' fight - Washington Post

President Trump emphasized the importance of "conservative values" and prioritizing the well-being of Americans over global interests during his speech at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 24. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

President Trump on Friday addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference, the event where he launched his political star in 2011. From the outset, he had one thing on his mind: the media.

Trump began his speech with a lengthy tirade against the press. We have annotated the president's remarks, using Genius.To see an annotation, click on the yellow, highlighted text. To addyour own, sign up for a Genius account.

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. So great to be with you. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

Great to be back at CPAC. It's a place I have really...

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!

TRUMP: I love this place.

(APPLAUSE)

Love you people. So thank you -- thank you very much.

First of all, I want to thank Matt Schlapp and his very, very incredible wife, and boss, Mercedes, who have been fantastic friends and supporters and so great. When I watch them on television defending me, nobody has a chance.

So I want to thank Matt and Mercedes.

(APPLAUSE)

And when Matt called and asked I said, "Absolutely I'll be there with you." I mean, the real reason I said it, I didn't want him to go against me cause that...

(LAUGHTER)

... that one you can't beat.

So I said absolutely.

And it really is an honor to be here. I wouldn't miss a chance to talk to my friends. These are my friends.

(APPLAUSE)

And we'll see you again next year and the year after that and I'll be doing this...

(APPLAUSE)

... I'll be doing this with CPAC whenever I can and I'll make sure that we're here a lot.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You can do it!

TRUMP: You know if you remember my first major speech -- sit down everybody. C'mon.

(LAUGHTER)

You know the dishonest media they'll say, "He didn't get a standing ovation." You know why?

(LAUGHTER)

No -- you know why? Because everybody stood and nobody sat. So they will say, "He never got a standing ovation," right? (Inaudible).

They are the worst.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

TRUMP: So -- sit down.

(LAUGHTER)

"Donald Trump did not get a standing ovation."

(LAUGHTER)

They leave out the part, "They never sat down." They leave that out.

So I just want to thank -- but you know my first major speak was at CPAC and -- probably five or six years ago. First major political speech. And you were there. And it was -- I loved it. I loved the people. I loved the commotion.

And then they did these polls were I went through the roof and I wasn't even running, right?

(LAUGHTER)

But it gave me an idea. And I got a little bit concerned when I saw what was happening in the country. And I said, "Let's go to it."

So, it was very exciting. I walked the stage on CPAC. I'll never forget it, really. I had very little notes and even less preparation. So when you have practically no notes and no preparation and then you leave and everybody was thrilled, I said, "I think I like this business."

(LAUGHTER)

I would've come last year but I was worried that I would be, at that time, too controversial. We wanted border security. We wanted very, very strong military. We wanted all of the things that we're going to get...

(APPLAUSE)

... and people consider that controversial but you didn't consider it controversial.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So, I've been with CPAC for a long time. All of these years we've been together. And now you finally have a president, finally. Took you a long time.

(APPLAUSE)

Took you a long time.

(APPLAUSE)

And it's patriots like you that made it happen, believe me. Believe me.

You did it because you love your country, because you want a better future for your children and because you want to make America great again.

(APPLAUSE)

The media didn't think we would win. The...

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)

(LAUGHER)

TRUMP: ... pundits -- you're right. They had an idea.

The pundits didn't think we'd win. The consultants that suck up all that money -- oh, they suck it up. They're so good.

(LAUGHTER)

They're not good at politics, but they're really good at sucking up people's money. Especially my opponents, because I kept them down to a minimum.

But the consultants didn't think we would win.

But they all underestimated the power of the people: You. And the people proved them...

(APPLAUSE)

... totally wrong. Never -- and -- and this is so true. And this is what's been happening. Never underestimate the people. Never.

(APPLAUSE)

I don't think it'll ever happen again.

And I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news. It's fake, phony, fake.

(APPLAUSE)

A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people.

(APPLAUSE)

Because they have no sources, they just make 'em up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said, "Nine people have confirmed." There're no nine people. I don't believe there was one or two people. Nine people.

And I said, "Give me a break." Because I know the people, I know who they talk to. There were no nine people.

But they say "nine people." And somebody reads it and they think, "Oh, nine people. They have nine sources." They make up sources.

They're very dishonest people. In fact, in covering my comments, the dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word "fake." And all of a sudden the story became the media is the enemy.

They take the word "fake" out. And now I'm saying, "Oh no, this is no good." But that's the way they are.

So I'm not against the media, I'm not against the press. I don't mind bad stories if I deserve them.

And I tell ya, I love good stories, but we don't go...

(LAUGHTER)

I don't get too many of them.

But I am only against the fake news, media or press. Fake, fake. They have to leave that word.

I'm against the people that make up stories and make up sources.

They shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody's name. Let their name be put out there. Let their name be put out.

(APPLAUSE)

"A source says that Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible human being." Let 'em say it to my face.

(APPLAUSE)

Let there be no more sources.

And remember this -- and in not -- in all cases. I mean, I had a story written yesterday about me in Reuters by a very honorable man. It was a very fair story.

There are some great reporters around. They're talented, they're honest as the day is long. They're great.

But there are some terrible dishonest people and they do a tremendous disservice to our country and to our people. A tremendous disservice. They are very dishonest people.

And they shouldn't use sources. They should put the name of the person. You will see stories dry up like you've never seen before.

So you have no idea how bad it is, because if you are not part of the story -- and I put myself in your position sometimes. Because many of you, you're not part of the story. And if you're not part of the story, you know, then you, sort of, know -- if you are part of the story, you know what they're saying is true or not.

TRUMP: So when they make it up -- and they make up something else, and you saw that before the election: polls, polls. The polls. They come out with these polls and everybody was so surprised.

Actually, a couple polls got it right. I must say Los Angeles Times did a great job, shocking because, you know, they did a great job.

(APPLAUSE)

And we had a couple of others that were right, but generally speaking, I mean, can tell you the network, somebody said a poll came out. And I say, what network is it? And they'll say, a certain -- let's not even mention names, right? Shall we?

(APPLAUSE)

Well, you have a lot of them. Look, the Clinton News Network is one.

(APPLAUSE)

Totally. Take a look. Honestly. Take a look, honestly. Take a look at polls over the last two years. Now you'd think they would fire the pollster, right? After years and years of getting battered, but I -- who knows, maybe they are just bad at polling or maybe they're not legit, but it's one or the other, look at how inaccurate -- look at CBS, look at ABC, also, look at NBC, take a look at some of these polls. They're so bad, so inaccurate and what that does is it creates a false narrative.

It creates like this narrative that is just like we're not going to win, people say, I love Trump, but you know, I'm not feeling great today, he can't win, so I won't go and vote. I won't go and vote. It creates a whole false deal. And we have to fight it, folks, we have to fight it. They're very smart, they're very cunning and they're very dishonest.

So just to conclude, I mean, it's a very sensitive topic and they get upset when we expose their false stories. They say that we can't criticize their dishonest coverage because of the First Amendment, you know, they always bring up the First Amendment.

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Donald Trump's CPAC speech proves it: He's totally obsessed with the media - Washington Post