Trump and the MSM are in what amounts to a co-dependent relationship. On the one hand, Trump craves adulation, and the MSM profit financially from the unusual public interest he creates; on the other hand, Trump can’t tolerate criticism, and the MSM want to avoid being used to chip away at our liberal democratic system. The two parties consequently both need and despise each other.
If Trump were a conventional politician, he would try to curry favor with the MSM in order to win support from moderate elements of both parties. Unfortunately, he views himself as being the leader of his base, not the entire nation, and his base considers the MSM to be, in his words, the “enemy of the people.” If you start from that obviously flawed premise, it makes perfect sense him to treat the MSM as the real opposition.
And so, if you thought the relationship between Nixon and the media was the worst one imaginable, you ain’t seen nothing yet.