There is a grain of truth in every joke. Or, as may be the case here, an entire granary.

Donald Trump struck a nerve on Sunday morning when his recently ramped up attacks on the media in general -- and CNN in particular -- took a troubling turn. In a single tweet, the only person in the world with the power to authorize U.S. nuclear strikes implicitly endorsed violence against the free press.

Let's let this statement from the "modern day presidential" White House speak for itself first.

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The video is a doctored version of Trump's IRL (but totally fake, because wrestling) pummeling of Vince McMahon during a WWE broadcast of Wrestlemania XXIII, from 2007. Only in place of McMahon's head, we see the CNN logo -- one of Trump's top media targets since becoming president.

CNN's Brian Stelter traced the doctored clip back to a recent post on pro-Trump subreddit TheDonald.

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Trump's tweet doesn't lift that GIF directly -- the version uploaded to his account is a looping video, with sound, and GIFs have no sound. Presumably, someone on the Trump social media team either created this video or communicated with the video's creator to get it shared by @RealDonaldTrump.

As many have noted, the video draws a chilling parallel with another recent event. It wasn't so long ago that an actual(and since elected) candidate for a Congressional seat -- Montana's Greg Gianforte -- body-slammed The Guardianreporter Ben Jacobs.

Whether or not Trump intended to reference that moment, the connection is plain as day. Social media was quick to call out what can easily be read as an implicit call to violence against the Fourth Estate.

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