Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine, said President Trump's harsh criticism of the press is likely to inspire violence against journalists.

During an interview Wednesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colo., Goldberg was asked to comment on the White House calling out supposed "fake news" and its aggressive attempts to discredit the media.

"The problem is — and this is what I worry about more than anything else — is that there are people in the country who don't understand that this is a cynical reality TV game and are going to hear over and over again from the president that the reporters, journalists are enemies of the state," he said. "And someone — I mean, God forbid — but someone is going to do something violent against journalists in a large way and then I know here the fault lies. And we're heading in this direction and it's quite frightening."

Goldberg's comments were first highlighted by the NTK Network.

The relationship between the administration and the national media has grown increasingly hostile since Trump's inauguration, heightened in large part by dialed back White House press briefings and a series of missteps by journalists covering the president.