Of course, it’s hardly new for Trump to attack the press. It’s been his go-to maneuver for years now, and it has decades-long roots in the conservative movement. It’s an attack that began more or less in bad faith—Trump has always loved the media, and has fine-tuned ways to make it work to his ends over decades in business—and has gradually transformed into a more genuine anger, as he is frustrated by the critical coverage he receives. (A good rule of thumb is that if you’re not thick-skinned enough for critical coverage, it might not be wise to run for president.)

But Trump’s latest talking point is different in degree, if not in kind. In the past, he has attacked what he labels “fake news” as dishonest and bad, and he has singled out specific stories and reporters for abuse. But his current critique, which lays most of the rupture in American life at the feet of the press, is broader and more forceful than his previous attacks. He has also pursued it consistently for several days now, avoiding distraction even amid major news events—unusual for him. It seems likely this will be Trump’s favorite rhetorical turn over the closing week of the campaign.

What accounts for the barrage against the press? One obvious factor is that there’s an election on November 6, and Trump is worried that Democrats could capture the House of Representatives, which would make it harder for him to move his agenda through Congress and could produce damaging inquiries into his administration and business.

Trump grasps the value of having a villain, but he struggles to find an effective one these days. He likes to talk about Hillary Clinton, but she’s not on the ballot. Bashing Nancy Pelosi has proved less effective than he might have hoped. Chuck Schumer, fuggedaboutit. That leaves the press and immigrants, both of which have been useful targets for him in the past. As Trump knows, the press is broadly unpopular—though it has actually enjoyed a bounce since his presidency, and is more trusted than he is.

Read: Trump calls for harmony and then attacks the media and his rivals.

Trump also knows that the press is bad at defending itself. For one thing, reporters are terrible at message discipline, which is one reason conspiracy theories about media coordination are so absurd. There’s also a tendency for journalists to get hung up on petty issues—remember the oversized controversy when Trump tweeted a GIF that depicted him body-slamming CNN?—that makes the press seem whiny and self-pitying.

This interpretation assumes that the president is acting in bad faith—which, given his track record, is never a bad assumption. But what if it’s wrong? Perhaps Trump is genuine in his critique—which doesn’t make it any less misguided, cruel, or dangerous.

Trump is likely to blame the media because he interprets the world almost exclusively through the press. The Oval Office is an isolating setting for every president, but no previous president has been as media-obsessed as Trump is, or so content to allow cable news to, well, mediate his relation with the world. More than any previous president, he deeply cares what the press says about him—and unlike predecessors who cared mainly because of the effect that it had on their ability to get things done, he seems to take it personally. Despite his vitriolic comments about reporters, he still speaks frequently to a few reporters, affording a more direct window into the president’s thinking than in most administrations.