Today In History: Trump Re-Ups On Slurs Against Opposition; Obama Visits Saudi King Salman

April 20, 2017, is the 108th day of the year, with 255 days remaining. The moon is in a waning crescent phase, and illumination is at 39 percent.

Trump rouses supporters: “Do we hate the media?”

The day after securing the GOP win in the 2016 New York primary, Donald J. Trump traveled to Indiana to hold a rally in the state’s capital of Indianapolis.

Trump had referred to his opponent, Ted Cruz, by his title as senator the previous evening on Tuesday, following the primary victory, but the Republican frontrunner returned to his use of the nickname “Lyin’ Ted” while addressing the Texas statesman at his Indianapolis rally, subsequently re-upping his efforts to brand Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary.”

“I love running against Crooked Hillary. I love that. It’s so much fun,” said Trump. “I call her ‘Crooked Hillary.’”

Trump’s rally culminated in a rallying cry between the GOP frontrunner and his supporters when he referred to the press corps as “very dishonest people” and “the worst.”

“Do we like the media?” he asked, to which his supporters cried, “No!”

“Do we hate the media?” continued Trump, and the crowd roared in affirmation: “Yes!”

“No, I don’t hate anybody,” the celebrity businessman seemed to backpedal. “I love the media; they’re wonderful, but hey — I guess we wouldn’t be here, maybe, if it wasn’t for the media, so maybe we shouldn’t be complaining, right?”

Obama visits with Saudi King Salman

While Trump was rallying his supporters in the Midwest, Barack Obama was visiting with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, with administration officials relaying that, in the end, the president had “really cleared the air” with King Salman during a meeting between the two leaders.

Obama had landed in Riyadh for a summit with Gulf leaders and spent almost three hours meeting with the 80-year-old Saudi monarch on issues that included the conflict of Yemen, the role of Iran and the fight against ISIS.

Former Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal told CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour that there would need to be “a recalibration of our relationship with America.”

“How far we can go with our dependence on America, how much we can rely on steadfastness from American leadership, what is it that makes for our joint benefits to come together — these are things that we have to calibrate,” said Al-Faisal.

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Photo credit: Obama White House via Flickr