Theodore Roosevelt said the US presidency was a “bully pulpit”, meaning it was a wonderful platform for influencing public opinion. Donald Trump is also a devotee of public relations, but uses his bully pulpit in the modern sense: to intimidate those he disagrees with or regards as enemies.
News media are a frequent target and this week President Trump added to targets of his anger Google — in particular the search giant’s news service. Its sin was to give prominence to stories that were critical of the president, including the CNN cable news network. “They have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD,” he tweeted.
He followed up with an inaccurate claim that Google did not feature his State of the Union addresses as prominently as those of Barack Obama, his predecessor. Absurdly, Larry Kudlow, his chief economic adviser and a former host on CNBC, was sent out to turn this into a threat. Mr Kudlow said the administration was “taking a look” at whether Google’s search results should be regulated.