Scarborough Hints That Trump’s Constant CNN-Bashing Is Actually a Ploy to Help ‘Great Friend’ Jeff Zucker

By now, the list of adjectives that president Donald Trump uses regularly to criticize the mainstream media are well known; but while it may seem as if this administration is acting incredibly hostile towards the press — namely, an outlet like CNN — one MSNBC anchor seems to think there may be more at play.

Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe surmised Monday morning that it’s clear Trump and CNN President Jeff Zucker are actually “great friends,” despite the harsh rhetoric that the President continues to use against the cable news net. Last week, Trump told CNN’s Jim Acosta directly that the moniker “fake news” — long used to to describe CNN in Trump circles — was being changed to “very fake news.” Trump also joked with Acosta to, “Ask Jeff Zucker how he got his job,” and it is well-known that Zucker and Trump worked closely together at NBC during the early years of The Apprentice.

“Let’s just put it all out on the table,” Scarborough said Monday morning. “Everybody’s ratings are up. Newspaper subscriptions at The New York Times are exploding, The Washington Post is doing better than its ever done before. The failing CNN? You know, from the day that Donald Trump called them ‘fake news,’ CNN’s numbers have exploded,” Scarborough admitted in a rare moment of giving credit to his cable adversaries.

Scarborough seemed as if he was about to admit that CNN Chief Jeff Zucker and Trump were “best friends,” but held back at the last second. “Donald Trump has been Jeff Zucker’s b– you can tell they’ve been great friends for a very long time,” he quickly corrected himself. “Because there is nothing Donald Trump could do to help CNN more than what he’s been doing. They’re enjoying record numbers.”

If Trump really wanted to inflict damage onto those major media outlets, said Scarborough without invoking his own network, “the best thing [Trump] could do is invite them over for dinner and make peace. He’s just not smart enough to figure that out I guess.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

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J.D. Durkin (@jivedurkey) is an editorial producer and columnist at Mediaite.

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