CNN Issues Comment After Oval Office Event
In a diplomatic encounter that should’ve passed quietly into the annals of state visits, yesterday’s meeting between President Donald J. Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele instead ignited a fresh media skirmish—one that perfectly encapsulates the broader collision between executive authority, international sovereignty, and the media’s narrative crusade.
At the heart of the controversy is a deported illegal alien—a figure CNN and other media entities have latched onto with fervent urgency. The Trump administration, firm in its stance on immigration enforcement, had already removed the individual to El Salvador.
Dana Bash: CNN does not hate our country. That goes without saying.
Fact check: FALSE! pic.twitter.com/ucKAzNhKGq
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 14, 2025
But now, certain corners of the media landscape appear determined to spotlight this deportee as a symbol of injustice, lobbying not so subtly for his return to the U.S.
Enter President Bukele, whose firm response served as both a sovereign rebuke and a civics lesson. With no hesitation, Bukele dismissed the notion of handing the man back over. “Preposterous,” he called it.
Dana Bash responds to Trump’s Oval Office CNN comments with solemn on-air statement:
“‘For the record...CNN does not hate our country."
Is this the first time a “news” network had to try to explain to its viewers that it doesn’t hate the country? Remarkable. pic.twitter.com/dIHEPg9jZJ
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 14, 2025
A court—especially a foreign one—he emphasized, cannot and should not dictate the terms of another country’s foreign policy. That principle, rooted in both international law and common diplomatic sense, was crystal clear in his words.
But clarity and common sense, it seems, are often casualties in the modern media cycle.
President Trump, never one to let a media provocation go unanswered, leveled a sharp accusation: CNN, he claimed, hates America. Whether a rhetorical flourish or a deliberate escalation, the comment struck a chord, prompting even some in the press to nervously tread into the absurd—attempting to reassure viewers that they do, in fact, love the country.
CNN: "We do NOT hate America "
Also CNN: pic.twitter.com/UkgtyWS42g
— Bill D'Agostino (@Banned_Bill) April 14, 2025
“Western Lensman,” a frequent observer of media missteps, put it best: when a news organization feels compelled to remind people it doesn’t despise the nation it covers, something is clearly off the rails.