From “alternative facts” to “potential grizzlies,” the first month-and-a-half of Trump’s presidency has been a veritable roller coaster. It seems that every time the media frenzy subsides, Trump unleashes another of his minions with a bombshell more scandalous than the last. Some of the most absurd headlines have been awarded the dubious distinction of meme status. But there is one development that is not comical in the slightest: the rise of what Trump terms “fake news.”

It is no secret that last year’s uniquely divisive election cycle saw a surge in the circulation of fabricated news stories from ersatz online outlets. The nature of the Internet allows misinformation to be spread almost as quickly as truth. In an age of information overload, few people take the time to fact-check everything they read before passing it on. Social media, chiefly Facebook, has been the largest enabler of this no-accountability info consumption.

However, to Donald Trump, “fake news” means something else entirely. It is a phrase that he has leveraged as a weapon to discredit the media time and time again. In one of his most inflammatory tweets, Trump called The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN not only “fake news” but also “the enemy of the American people.” (Fox News was noticeably absent from the list.) Trump even went so far as to say that “any negative polls are fake news.”

In doing so, President Trump has hijacked a term that used to have real meaning. Over the course of the election, it was used as a warning against false reporting and propaganda that are suspected of having swung the election in Trump’s favor. Trump has utterly perverted that definition. “Fake news” is no longer a safeguard against Trump’s manipulation of the press, but rather a tactic to repudiate any media he is unable to manipulate.

In addition to casting aspersions on the credibility of press that may or may not be biased against him, the “fake news” label serves another equally insidious purpose: it helps Trump channel the animosity of his supporters. It is the old “us vs. them” tactic; people need an enemy to blame. From Trump’s perspective, as long as everyone’s loathing is directed elsewhere, Trump is safe. First it was “crooked Hillary” who was branded public enemy number one, and now it is the news media.

“What he wants is to manufacture his own pseudo-truth; to create a reality where he always wins,” writes Frida Ghitis for CNN (the news outlet that has borne the brunt of Trump’s attacks). The president’s crusade against the press is a ploy to divert attention from the scandals of his administration’s chaotic first month. Wait–scandals? What scandals? “The White House is running so smoothly, so smoothly,” Trump insists.

The general consensus among Democrats and Republicans alike is that President Trump’s assault on the media constitutes an assault on democracy. “I hate the press,” admitted Sen. John McCain (R – Arizona). “But the fact is […] we need a free press. We must have it. It’s vital.” The media acts as almost a fourth branch of government that checks and balances the power of the other three. That is why, as McCain and countless journalists have pointed out, “the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press.” So far, Trump is no dictator, but he is a demagogue with “strong authoritarian tendencies,” contends Ghitis. Even Fox News, from which Trump has come to expect nothing but adoration, did not hold back their condemnation. “It’s absolutely crazy!” exclaimed network anchor Shepard Smith on live TV. “He keeps repeating ridiculous throwaway lines” that are “demonstrably, unquestionably, one-hundred-percent false.”

The fortunate irony is that Trump’s scheme has not worked on anyone but his most fanatical fans. It is true that public trust in the media has fallen markedly over the course of Trump’s campaign. However, as a poll from Morning Consult demonstrates, the low average is attributable to the public’s rock-bottom esteem for fringe right-wing outlets and not to mainstream media like CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and The New York Times. All five of these sources were deemed credible by almost or over two-thirds of Americans. In contrast, alt-right propaganda pushers like Breitbart and InfoWars were trusted by 19% and 17% respectively–no higher than The Onion, America’s leading satirical news source.

In fact, Trump’s attempts to demonize the media have not only failed, they have backfired. Ticked off about a poor review of his Trump Grill restaurant in Vanity Fair, Trump went on Twitter to groundlessly claim that the magazine’s numbers were “way down” with “big trouble” ahead. The next day, the magazine’s new subscriptions soared to a hundred times the daily average, prompting Vanity Fair to begin marketing itself as “the magazine Trump doesn’t want you to read.” The New York Times, which Trump constantly refers to as “failing,” is also setting records in subscriptions. In fact, the positive trend is so universal that newsmen have begun to refer to it as the “Trump Bump.”

The fact that Trump’s agenda has fallen flat does not make it any less treacherous. “If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and, many times, adversarial press,” reiterates Senator McCain. But Trump’s vendetta against the First Amendment is no urgent cause for concern. After all, if Fox News is brave enough to stand up to him, anyone can.