After all this time, President Donald Trump’s go-to response for unflattering media coverage remains to shout “fake news!” This Friday morning, he did so on Twitter over scrutiny of his administration’s latest actions towards Iran, insisting — despite what we can all clearly see — that there’s nothing to be concerned about and reporters are fanning unnecessary flames.
He railed:
‘The Fake News Media is hurting our Country with its fraudulent and highly inaccurate coverage of Iran. It is scattershot, poorly sourced (made up), and DANGEROUS. At least Iran doesn’t know what to think, which at this point may very well be a good thing!’
Although Trump likes to make the claim, there remains no sort of widespread evidence that mainstream media outlets make up sources. That’s not the main issue here, though — in reality, the Trump administration has, in fact, dispatched a number of additional military assets like an aircraft carrier and strategic bombers to the Iran area, and they have been reviewing plans for incidents like Iranian attacks on U.S. interests. In that case, plans would apparently include upping the number of troops in the Middle East by tens of thousands, putting it at up to 100,000 to 120,000.
Trump isn’t contesting these issues, and neither can he contest that he himself withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstituted tough sanctions against the country that have it up in arms.
He just wants us to believe that some unspecified media coverage about Iran is fake news because… he said so?
He’s offered this same “explanation” for the situation surrounding Iran in recent days, putting the discrepancy between reality and his rhetoric on even more glaring display. Asked if he would send tens of thousands more troops to the Middle East, he told reporters:
‘I think it’s fake news. Now would I do that? Absolutely.’
How can something be “fake news” and a step he “absolutely” would take? It’s not like we should expect an answer for that from Trump anytime soon. Watch the moment in question:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is demanding a briefing on the situation for the full U.S. House as soon as possible. There’s one for the Senate scheduled for next week.
Check out Twitter’s response…
Featured Image via screenshot
