Think you’re having a bad day? Spare a thought for Donald Trump

One more question ... US President Donald Trump speaks with the media yesterday. Picture: AP

Donald Trump interviewed by ­George Stephanopoulos on America’s ABC News on Sunday:

Trump: And when I’m treated badly by the press — and nobody’s ever been treated badly like me. When I’m treated so badly …

Stephanopoulos: You know that every president says that.

Trump: I disagree. Look, it’s been acknowledged. Although they do say Abraham Lincoln was treated really badly. I must say that’s the one.

It’s a theme close to his heart. Trump in his commencement address to the graduating class of the US Coast Guard on May 17, 2017:

No politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly.

Back to Trump’s interview with Stephanopoulos:

If you can believe it, Abraham Lincoln was treated supposedly very badly. But nobody’s been treated badly like me.

TONIGHT: Trump treats George Stephanopoulos to the weirdest episode of “Cribs” ever. pic.twitter.com/5kpd73wn9Z

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 18, 2019

Poor Donald. Smithsonian Magazine on April 8, 2015, recounting Lincoln’s fateful visit to Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC:

At about 12 minutes after 10pm, the impeccably dressed John Wilkes Booth presented his calling card to the footman and gained admittance to the box. Once inside, he raised his pistol, pointed it at the back of the president’s head and fired. As Lincoln slumped forward, Henry Rathbone attempted to grab the intruder. Booth pulled out his knife, slashed Rathbone in the chest, and managed to leap from the box on to the stage … Until the screams broke forth from the president’s box, many in the audience thought the dramatic moment was part of the play. Then they saw Mary Lincoln frantically waving. “They have shot the president!” she cried. “They have shot the president!”

Genuinely bad treatment. National Geographic, August 27, 2004:

Four sitting presidents have been ­assassinated while in office: Abraham Lincoln, James Abram Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1897-1901) and John F. Kennedy (1961-63). Six other presidents were luckier and survived assassination attempts: Andrew Jackson (1829-37), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09), Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45), Harry Truman (1945-53), Gerald Ford (1974-77) and Ronald Reagan (1981-89).

Trump’s not the first occupant of the Oval Office to get the huff. Richard Nixon to Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig, December 14, 1972:

Never forget, the press is the enemy, the press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy, the professors are the enemy, the professors are the enemy. Write that on the blackboard 100 times.

British politician Enoch Powell back in the day:

Politicians who complain about the press are like sailors who complain about the sea.

Declining an invitation to complain about the press, Tanya Plibersek discusses the election result on Radio National yesterday:

Fran Kelly: Do you blame the might of Clive Palmer and The Australian newspaper and …?

Plibersek: Look, I don’t think $60 million or $80m — however much Clive Palmer spent — had any impact. It didn’t win him a seat but it certainly had a negative impact on people’s perceptions, but I don’t want to get down into the rabbit hole of navel-gazing. I’m saying that we need to focus on the future. We need to make sure that our policies are right, that our messaging is right … all the while focusing on holding this government to account …