During an early Tuesday morning tweetstorm, the president-elect picked apart CNN, congratulated himself for winning the state of Michigan, and threatened flag-burners. Donald Trump announced that he was awake at 6:15 a.m. with a tweet about his victory in the Rust Belt state. He added, “I thought that @CNN would get better after they failed so badly in their support of Hillary Clinton however, since election, they are worse!” Separately, the president-elect used the social-media platform to say he believes “nobody” should be “allowed to burn the American flag.” He added that “there must be consequences—perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!"
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
The anti-free speech rant, which the president-elect posted at 6:55 a.m. ET, seems to coincide with a Fox & Friends segment about students at Hampshire College burning the American flag in protest of Trump’s electoral victory. Considering Trump himself has admitted to religiously watching cable news, it would not be out of the ordinary for his tweet to reflect a reaction to what he had just watched on Fox News’s infamous conservative gabfest.
Trump has yet to provide evidence of millions of people voting illegally, as claimed in his most recent tweetstorm. The president-elect has previously threatened to curb the First Amendment rights of the press, declaring during the campaign that he’d like to “open up the libel laws” to make it easier for him to sue outlets that give him unfavorable coverage.
