Davos Economic Forum attendees booed President Donald Trump at an appearance on Friday in which he criticized the media as “fake.”
Trump told world political and business leaders at the annual gathering in Switzerland that as a businessman, he received positive media coverage, but once he launched his presidential campaign in 2015, he realized that reporters were “nasty” and “fake,” eliciting boos from people in the audience.
“It wasn’t until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be ― as the cameras start going off in the back,” Trump said. The president frequently makes the false claim that television cameras don’t air his anti-media remarks.
Some reporters at the forum said some of booing came from foreign journalists.
Audience members also booed World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab when he introduced Trump by saying that “your strong leadership is open to misconceptions and biased interpretations.”
Several delegates from Africa had planned to protest Trump’s speech, in response to the president’s reported reference to Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries” during a meeting with congressional leaders this month. It was unclear if that protest occurred, as some attendees needed to leave the speech before its conclusion.
Earlier in the day, Trump met with Rwanda President Paul Kagame, the head of the African Union, which criticized Trump’s racist remarks.
According to reporters, Trump ignored questions about whether the two leaders discussed his comments.
Trump also dismissed reports in The New York Times and other outlets that he ordered the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller last summer, calling the reports “fake news.”
“Typical New York Times. Fake stories,” Trump said.
The Washington Post, Politico, and Trump-friendly Fox News also reported the Mueller firing story.
- This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
