Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron on Wednesday slammed Donald Trump for his constant barrage of attacks on the press, arguing the president’s “fake news” mantra is “bad news for the fight against corruption.”
“When Donald Trump uses the term ‘fake news’ to describe CNN and the BBC, that is not just a questionable political tactic,” Cameron said. “It’s actually dangerous.”
Cameron noted while “of course” broadcasters make mistakes, Trump’s use of “fake news” as a derogatory attack on the media “is an attempt to question the whole legitimacy of organizations that have an important role in our democracy.”
“Let me put it like this. President Trump: ‘Fake news’ is not broadcasters criticizing you, it’s Russian bots and trolls targeting your democracy … pumping out untrue stories day after day, night after night,” Cameron lectured.
Speaking of Russian bots, Cameron said the United Kingdom is right to focus on the Kremlin’s efforts to subvert democracy across the globe.
“Barack Obama used to challenge European leaders over how we seemed to ignore or even tolerate Russian subversion of some Eastern European business, energy, media or even political interest,” Cameron said. “He was bang on target. And my successor, Theresa May, has been quite right to put this on the EU Council agenda.”
Cameron resigned as Prime Minister immediately after the shocking Brexit vote in June 2016. Obama and Cameron both campaigned heavily against the United Kingdom separating from the European Union. Many observers believe the same nationalist upswell that led the UK to vote for Brexit helped propel Trump to the presidency.