Rachel Maddow on Saturday said President Donald Trump is taking inspiration from an old rally tactic with his decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House: encourage supporters to heckle the “Fake News.”

In an appearance on her colleague Peter Alexander’s “State of Play” program, the MS NOW host recalled covering rallies where Trump would often direct the crowd’s attention toward the media pen by remarking on their “dishonest” coverage, prompting supporters to hurl boos upon the press.

“We would have this sort of Orwellian, two minutes [of] hate,” Maddow said.

She later continued, “The whole crowd turns around and starts screaming at them and baying for blood, and he loves that.”

Maddow said Trump — whose approval ratings remain underwater as his unpopular war of choice in Iran continues — is at a point where he can’t “count on moving his base” like before, and the same “lines,” “tricks,” “crowd manipulation tactics” and “authoritarian personality tics” don’t always work.

“He’s in a really low place politically and so I think this is him playing the hits,” she said.

“I think this is him going back to something that he knows his base will enjoy, and he wants that feeling again. And I think it’s as simple as that.”

Her comments come as players from across the media landscape bash Trump over his move to bar the three major outlets from the White House due to coverage he’s dissatisfied with.

At least one First Amendment expert — Jameel Jaffer, director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute — called the decision “pretty clearly unconstitutional,” telling NBC News that it’s “representative of a broader pattern” in the administration and an attack on the “public’s right to independent information about government.”

The White House tried to temporarily ban The Associated Press over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its Trump-approved “Gulf of America” last year. A judge later ruled that the ban violated the First Amendment.

Earlier in her MS NOW appearance, Maddow said Trump knows what he “can and can not do” as president, but he likes doing moves like the press ban because “he likes the way it plays.”

“Sometimes the simplest explanation is the one that’s most likely right,” she said.

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