Donald Trump has spent much of the past few months working to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller, everyone on his team, everyone at the FBI, and anyone else involved in the investigation into the alleged collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russian government operatives as well as Trump’s efforts to quell that investigation, which may constitute obstruction of justice. After all of that, the president posted the following tweet, presumably with a straight face.
If “cooperative” and “disciplined” includes insisting that everyone who speaks truth to power is a Democrat working in tandem with some “deep state” conspiracy group, calling every report made about the investigation “fake news,” and posting all-caps tweets saying the entire investigation is nothing but a “WITCH HUNT,” then yes, Trump has been historically cooperative and disciplined.
However, none of that is cooperative or disciplined. It amounts to the same tactics that the Kremlin is known to use called “disinformation campaigns.”
‘The planting of false stories is nothing new; the Soviet Union devoted considerable resources to that during the ideological battles of the Cold War. Now, though, disinformation is regarded as an important aspect of Russian military doctrine, and it is being directed at political debates in target countries with far greater sophistication and volume than in the past.’
Not only does Trump and his administration spread false information as talking points to influence their base, they have worked to discredit every legitimate news source in order to control the narrative for their base. As long as every news organization who refuses to support the president’s narrative is “fake,” only the sources who push Trump’s agenda can be trusted by their voters. As a result, Fox News has become nothing more than an outlet for the RNC and for Trump himself with no possibility for fact-checking from other organizations.
Yet Trump wants the country to believe he’s been cooperative and disciplined. He also wants the country to stop thinking about what the current president of the United States may or may not have done by continuing to stoke their outrage for a man who has not been president for 18 years and his wife, who was never president, and whose campaign ended more than a year ago.
If that’s cooperative and disciplined in Trump’s mind, the country is in even more peril than anyone knew.
Twitter responded to Trump with incredulity and scorn. See some of their comments below:
Featured image via Getty/Mark Wilson
