'Major campaign violation': Trump lashes out after MSNBC host says he’s 'backed into a corner'

09 May

Image via Screengrab / MSNBC.

During a Thursday, May 8 meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new trade agreement with Great Britain. Many Trump critics are attacking the deal as low on specifics and details, but MSNBC's Joe Scarborough — himself a major Trump critic — argued that the announcement gives Trump a chance to "say here's a trade deal" during a May 9 broadcast of "Morning Joe." And the broadcast is getting an angry reaction from Trump himself.

"I still believe it's all show biz," Scarborough told a panel that included fellow MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle and CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Sorkin agreed, describing the UK announcement as "policy by press release." And Ruhle interjected that the deal gives Trump an offramp from steep new tariffs that are likely to cause a great deal of economic pain if he doesn't change course.

"Donald Trump is backed into a corner," Ruhle told Scarborough and Sorkin. "His grand plans of tariffs, tariffs, tariffs aren't working right. You're seeing, day in and day out, more business leaders, whether it's Warren Buffett or Jamie Dimon or Ken Griffin on big global stages, saying this is going to crush us economically. And then, you've got congressmen, senators from every state saying to this White House: Our small businesses are strangling, are dying here."

Ruhle continued, "I'm not saying Donald Trump has changed what he thinks in his heart, but he's backed into a corner — and he needs to get off this crazy tariff train and he knows it…. Unless he turns this around three weeks from now, you walk into a store — and we're going to have a COVID-like supply-chain crisis. And Trump is looking for an exit."

Trump had an angry reaction to the broadcast.

About ten or 11 minutes after Ruhle's "backed into a corner" comments, Trump went to his Truth Social platform and posted, "MSNBC, the worst there is on Television misrepresentation, is so far knowingly off in their statements about me and Tariffs that it should be considered a Major Campaign Violation. They are nothing less than an arm of the Democrat National Committee, and their untruths are incredible, real losers. Their ratings are down the tubes, but that pressure on them doesn’t give them the right to lie and cheat!"

Mediaite's Colby Hall called out Trump's "campaign violation" comment as ludicrous, writing, "Of course, the Constitution protects free speech, and criticism is not a 'campaign violation.' MSNBC’s coverage is very often in lockstep with rhetoric from Democrats, but this has been the case for some time."

Trump's attack on Ruhle is drawing some reactions on X, formerly Twitter.

MeidasTouch tweeted, "Trump lashed out at MSNBC on Friday morning, accusing the network of committing a 'major campaign violation' by reporting about his tariffs."

Semafor's Dave Weigel tweeted, "What campaign?"

X user Emre Yurttas posted, "Pretty sure that's called reporting the news and I must have missed the part where he was running for office again!"

Attorney Andrew T. Lessman wrote, "He keeps giving the game away."

Watch the full video below or at this link.