Some political rhetoric has become “not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.” So said New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger, not of the Leftmedia’s rabble-rousing, of course, but of President Donald Trump’s tweets. Speaking of a July 20 meeting between Sulzberger and Trump, the newspaperman said his purpose in the meeting was to “raise concerns about the president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.” In fact, he said of phrases like “fake news” and “enemy of the people” that he “told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.”

So would that be dangerous like Rep. Maxine Waters’s angry admonition to harass Trump administration officials? Or would it be dangerous like the Democrat/Leftmedia rhetoric that preceded the attempted murder of several Republicans last year? Sulzberger didn’t address either incident, so we’re left to guess — though his fellow travelers did blame Trump for the murder of five journalists in Maryland last month.

Trump responded to Sulzberger’s backstab, “[Ninety percent] of media coverage of my Administration is negative, despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving, it’s no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low!” He added, “The failing New York Times and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements — and they will never change!” He’s right on all counts.

He also said, “When the media — driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome — reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic! Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news accurately.” And they’re not ever going to do that as leaders of the #Resistance.

Yes, Trump has a habit of using heated rhetoric, but he was absolutely right to call a few chief Leftmedia outlets our nation’s “biggest enemy.” And as PowerLine’s John Hinderaker observes, “Recall that it was leftists who first used the phrase ‘fake news’ in complaints about Facebook stories during the election. Trump has now co-opted ‘fake news’ and made it his own.”

Trump was elected by voters fed up with being scorned by the coastal-elite press — voters who knew no one but a brash fighter would stand up for them. Eighteen months into his presidency, he shows no signs of moderating that fight for the sake of Sulzberger’s hurt feelings.