President Donald Trump went after what he called the “very unfair media” Wednesday for its coverage of his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, singling out criticism from his former national security advisor John Bolton.
“Very unfair media is at work on my meeting with Putin,” Trump wrote Wednesday in an online post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won.’ What’s that all about? We are winning on everything. The fake news is working overtime (no tax on overtime)!”
Bolton has long advocated for the United States to continue its support for Ukraine amidst the Russo-Ukrainian War, and has frequently cited the boost to profits for United States arms manufacturers as one key benefit to doing so.
However, Trump was not happy with media outlets platforming Bolton’s position, or any other critics of his diplomatic efforts, and went on to call members of the media “sick and dishonest people” who “probably hate our country.”
“Look at all of the real news that’s coming out about their corruption,” Trump wrote. “They are sick and dishonest people, who probably hate our country. But it doesn’t matter because we are winning on everything!”
Trump’s meeting is set to take place in Alaska on Friday, where the president is expected to work to negotiate an end to the war. Putin has already announced, as a condition to ending the war, that he wants to take control of a significant portion of Eastern Ukraine, a position already at odds with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's requirements.