President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on the media as the “enemy of the people” are close to sparking violence that could lead to journalists being attacked around the world, the outgoing United Nations human rights commissioner said, according to a report Monday.

“We began to see a campaign against the media … that could have potentially, and still can, set in motion a chain of events which could quite easily lead to harm being inflicted on journalists just going about their work and potentially some self-censorship,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said, the Guardian reported.

“And in that context, it’s getting very close to incitement to violence,” he said.

Zeid, a Jordanian prince and diplomat, said he is stepping down from his UN post later this month because of a lack of commitment among world leaders to check abuses.

In recent campaign-style rallies, Trump has trashed the media as “fake, fake disgusting news” as his supporters taunted reporters covering the event by unleashing a torrent of profanity and flashing obscene gestures at them.

Zeid, who took office in 2014, said authoritarian leaders around the world are using Trump’s example to crack down on the media in ways they never would have before.

“The US creates a demonstration effect, which then is picked up by other countries where the leadership tends to to be more authoritarian [in] character or aspires to be authoritarian,” he said.

The Trump administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council in June, calling it “a self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights” that is biased against Israel.