On Saturday morning, Donald Trump saw fit to spend his morning sending a slew of tweets accusing former President Obama of wiretapping himself and his New York office shortly before the election.
Offering no evidence for his claims, no one is sure if Trump is referring to confidential information that he, as president, has access to, or if he is merely parroting the words of a newly published Breitbart piece. The piece includes statements made by Mark Levin, a far-right writer and speaker, who accuses the Obama administration of successfully wiretapping and keeping tabs on Trump and his campaign shortly before the election was held.
While it is possible that President Obama did engage in something like this, it was most likely completely legal (Thanks Patriot Act!), and if Trump is using confidential reports to inspire his tweets, it could be he who is in legal hot water today.
As the Huffington Post noted, Obama has not responded to requests for comment – he’s probably on an island somewhere in an alternate universe sipping pineapple juice, lucky guy.
But this latest accusation from President Trump is a serious one, especially if he did indeed get his information from a substance-less Breitbart report.
Since Trump took office, he appears not to have abandoned his old habits of trusting Fox News and conspiracy theory websites for his news. Whether it be “Fox and Friends” sharing a false report about Sweden, or Alex Jones on InfoWars being used as a media resource for the POTUS despite his belief that Sandy Hook was a hoax, President Trump’s only requirements for a trustworthy news source is that they support him unwaveringly.
Which is why we continue to run into situations where the President will seemingly out of nowhere go on yet another Twitter rant about Chicago, or Muslims, or something else, and shortly later, we’ll discover his exact statements had been said on a right-wing news source.
It’s dangerous and it’s absurd.
