As Donald Trump is learning, one should be very careful when he asks for and praises leaks, because those can cut both ways.
You may recall that during the 2016 race for the White House, Trump asked the Russians to find and release the emails he claimed Hillary Clinton had deleted from her private server. He also praised releases from WikiLeaks which may have helped contribute to his winning the election.
But now that he’s on the receiving end of leaks that harm him and members of his administration, Trump is taking a much harder line, going on Twitter this morning and declaring:
The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2017
He also added this:
Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2017
Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2017
In Trump’s badly addled mind, even though the message is true and led to his compromised National Security Adviser having to resign in disgrace, the fault lies with the messenger, i.e the media. He knows damn well that Flynn got caught red-handed, and now he’s trying to change the conversation to something else. Since so many of his brainless supporters hate the press for shining a light on Trump’s corruption and treason, they willingly go along with his diversion.
During a joint press conference Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Trump commented:
“From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. It’s criminal action, criminal act, and it’s been going on for a long time before me, but now it’s really going on. People are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton. I think it’s very, very unfair what’s happened to Gen. Flynn, the way he was treated, and the documents and papers that were illegally — I stress that — illegally leaked. Very, very unfair.”
All Trump can do now is whine. He knows that he, along with members of his inner circle, are currently under investigation, and he has been so critical of the intelligence agencies that they are also doing all they can to bring him down.
But here’s the bottom line for Trump: He created the problem, and the only person to blame can be seen whenever he looks in the mirror.
Featured Image Via NBC
