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Trump's Comments on Black History Month Turned into a Rant About 'Fake News'

The president's statements about MLK Jr. somehow careened into an attack on CNN and praise for the way FOX News treats him.
Photo by Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images

On Wednesday morning, Trump sat down for a White House event to honor the beginning of Black History Month. His remarks quickly shifted from "the tremendous history of African Americans throughout our country" to a rant about the media and that false report about how he supposedly removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.

From there, the whole thing careened into a rambling thank you to FOX News for its positive coverage of him, a promise to create "safer communities" with increased police presence, and some gloating about his actually-pretty-dismal black-voter numbers.

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Trump also described 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass as "someone who has done an amazing job" and is "being recognized by more and more people," even though Douglass died in 1895.

The whole thing was a rambling mess of a statement from a president who was endorsed by the KKK's newspaper during his campaign. Sitting next to Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault and HUD secretary pick, Ben Carson, he told those attending the event that he doesn't watch CNN because it's "fake news," before calling the media "the opposition party."

The White House has more events planned through February to honor Black History Month. You can watch a clip of Trump's Wednesday statements below.