The fake news is coming from inside the White House

As Trump knows, though, there are many reasons for someone to provide information without wanting to be identified. Trump himself used to call news outlets pretending to be his own publicist so that he could share details without revealing the source. And while Trump administration officials often speak on the record to the media, they nearly as often speak only on background as so-called “senior administration officials,” faceless voices praising Trump without being able to be held accountable for what they said. It happens so often that the abbreviation “SAO” is understood immediately by the press.

Here, for example, are a number of things that the White House has provided to the White House press corps using sources who refused to be named. (All quotes are from pool reports filed by members of the media.)

Jan. 28: About the immigration ban.

>The official said that Trump advisers had been in contact for many weeks with key State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials about Friday’s executive order. “Everyone who needed to know was informed,” the official said.

When the administration was forced to craft a second attempt at the ban a month after this, press secretary Sean Spicer told press that the first attempt was flawed by not having enough people in place to vet it.

>The official said green-card holders from one of the seven affected countries who are currently outside the United States will need a case by case waiver to return to the United States, according to the official. Those green-card holders in the United States will have to meet with a consular officer before leaving the country, the official said.

Jan. 29: Immigration ban.

>The SAO said there was no “advance notice” of the order going out for clear reasons that he did not explicitly outline. “I think everybody here can use their imagination to imagine 25 reasons why that wouldn’t make sense from a security standpoint,” SAO said.

>The SAO said that “the guidance from the beginning” has been that legal permanent residents (LPRs) were exempt from the immigration EO, although there was some discussion about that in the room.

Notice that the comment about LPRs contradicts the statement from the previous day about green-card holders.

>SAO praised the implementation of the order as having been done “seamlessly” and with “extraordinary professionalism.”

A common thread: Praise for whatever the administration is doing.

Feb. 14: On peace in the Middle East.

>The official said a possible meeting between the Israelis and Palestinians would be part of the discussions tomorrow. “He’s hopeful to bring the two sides together to discuss peace,” the official said of the president. How quickly would he like to get a Middle East peace process going? “I do think it’s a very high priority for the administration,” the official said, who would not be pinned down on timeline.

Feb. 24: A response to reports that the White House had tried to get intelligence officials to deny reports about FBI investigations.

>[FBI assistant director] Andrew McCabe said ‘I want you to know story in NYT (in FBI investigating contacts between Trump campaign people and Russian intel) is BS.’ (Some question whether he said bullshit or simply BS although officials best recollection is ‘bullsh-t.’) Preibus asked ‘what can we do about this?’ McCabe demurs and says he’ll get back to Preibus. Preibus’ can concern is he’s ‘getting crushed’ on the story. ‘What an I supposed to do?’

An unnamed official relaying a conversation held within the White House is the sort of thing that Trump in other contexts has harshly criticized.

Mar. 10: Conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

>President Trump has been “heartened” by what he has heard from Berlin about devoting more resources to the annual NATO military budget. POTUS intends to talk with Merkel about her government crafting a “concrete plan,” the senior official said. POTUS is “very interested” to get Merkel’s insights about working with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the senior official said.

As is an unnamed person offering insight into Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders.

Apr. 12: Trump had a good week.

>The main theme was that this has been a successful week or so for Potus on the international stage, including the retaliation against Syria, the summit with President Xi and today’s U.N. vote. “It’s difficult to portray this as anything but a really great week” for the United States.

May 23; From the early part of Trump’s first foreign trip.

>So I think this trip was a big success because it was unexpected. It went in the heart of one of the, I always say that the president is always at his best when he’s doing big things that are unexpected. … He was able to really go into Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the holy mosques, and then Donald Trump united the entire Muslim world in a way that it really hasn’t been in many years. So it really was very historic in that regard.

The official then talked about peace in the Middle East again.

>You can’t just walk in on Day One and sign a deal that no one has gotten done in 35 years but we thought it was very essential to look at the work over the last 100-odd days and this trip is to do a lot of listening, build very strong relationships with all the different people, not just the parties involves, but all the people in the neighborhood.

May 25: The trip, continued.

>This official continued, “What Trump’s doing really is increasing NATO’s ability to deter any kind of aggression on its borders, including from Russia.”

May 27: The end of the trip.

>I feel more than comfortable to say that the President had built an extraordinary rapport with the other leaders. He developed great friendships. It was extremely productive. … This trip has left no one with any doubt about who America’s friends are and who America’s allies are, and our resolution in determining the course of our future based upon upholding those alliances and friendships. But ultimately, we also formed new partnerships and new friendships, and have created a growing consensus around the world about the need to combat the shared threat of terrorism.

The SAO offered a summary.

>I’ll just implore you all, whether you’re talking about our successes on trade and migration in the G-7 or summit in Saudi Arabia, to tell the story back home about what an unprecedentedly and historically successful trip this was by an incredible leader and an amazing man who has done extraordinary things in a very short time for the country he loves and the people of America that he serves so faithfully.

Again, these are the anonymous comments of senior officials reported by the press, precisely what happens in situations that lead to stories Trump doesn’t like. But since Trump doesn’t like those stories, those anonymous sources are decried as criminals or imaginary. The guys telling the press how well Trump’s trip went? They’re just regular old unnamed senior officials, and their word is unimpeachable.

Couple those SAOs with Trump’s hundreds — literally — of untrue statements since he came into office and his tendency to have staff make claims that he later undercuts (something he himself admits), it seems pretty clear where the fake news originates, if Trump is to be believed.

Incidentally, for those curious about why Trump might think that someone would create a fictitious source to make a ridiculous claim, we return to the same well we’ve visited so many times before: His tweets.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/232572505238433794

>>144914
>largest source for fabrictating russian-collusion fake news tries to blame fake news on Trump
This feels like panic before the "inside leakers" in the WH get brought up on charges.

Be a real shame if the NYT or WaPo were brought up on tangentially related RICO charges due to a press conspiracy to sell fake news for profit and were forced to reveal that at least half of their "anonymous sources" and "unnamed officials" didn't actually exist.

>>144959
so are the leaks fake news or are the leakers going to be prosecuted?

>>144961
The leakers are all apart of Clinton's spirit cooking and want to nuke humanity so that the reptillians can take over with minimum effort. Only Putin and Trump stand in the way of this globalist conspiracy to end humankind.

>>144961
Why not both? It's not like they are mutually exclusive.

>>144920
I trust Trump.

>>145011
Every claim he's made has litterally been proven right, even after the haranguing by the MSM

He knows what's going on

>>144972
My body has started violently rejecting this redpill. Thanks asshole.

>>144989
Yes, yes they are. That's the OP article's entire point.

>>145015
Is it impossible that there can be some combination of real leaks and fake articles? The article just takes an extreme all or nothing stance. I just don't see how there can't be more nuance then that.

>>145012

Is this a joke?

>>145015
The world is a complicated place, Jimmy. When you grow up you will learn that seeming contradictions are the norm.

>>145016
Trump himself has said verbatim:
"The leaks are real, the news is fake."
Sure you can do some mental juggling-while-unicycling-backwards and interpret that as "some leaks are real, other times the news is fake" but it really makes no sense. Trump doesn't give a flying shit about making sense so that's to be expected I guess.

I'm not the greatest fan of the post but pretty much everything that the Washington Post has claimed happened (i.e. hard, verifiable and falsifiable claims, not the Maddow-style innuendo they sometimes lay on in the Russia stories) turned out to be true.

>>145022
There's no reason to be condescending. I'm also missing the actual resolution of the "seeming" contradiction in Trump's rhetoric in your post.

>>145023
You seem to think I give a shit about what that dumbass said. If that idiot wants to keep digging himself a bigger hole, let him. All I was trying to get at with my posts is that there is no reason to believe that all news about leaks is either 100% true or 100% false and to take such an extreme stance in an article is doing a disservice to your readers.

>>145028
Well the thing is that a great many of the reports about leaks have turned out to be true while none have been disproven.
And I honestly don't think that serious news outlets just make up quotes from anonymous sources. But maybe I'm just naive.

>>145034
I can't think of any off the top of my head besides pissgate, but I am sure there are others.

Globalist Lies from MSM!

>>145039
Yeah and look at "pissgate": from the beginning, everyone touched that report with a 10-foot pole at best. It's not like any serious news source went all like "Ha! Drumpf caught getting peed on by Russia!". They were all falling over themselves to put as much distance as possible between that report and them. So I really can't fault anyone there.

>>145041
Fair enough. And to be entirely fair to the news sources, that was a case of an anonymous source lying to them as opposed to them completely fabricating the story. I suppose I am just a sceptical person who dislikes dealing in absolutes.

>>145013
https://youtu.be/d0Fzdi8rf4U

https://youtu.be/xuThm6Vzxxc

Get educated or GTFO normie.

>Article quotes the White House directly
>Retards still screech "fake news"

How dumb can Trump supporters possibly get? I'm glad his impeachment draws ever nearer.

>>145056
The lizards won't let me!

>>144914
>two largely contradictory things.

>You must believe that there are a slew of leakers in the executive branch who are providing damning details to the press illegally, and who must be rooted out and punished.

>You must also believe that the press makes up imaginary leakers simply to slowly and incrementally report false stories that are tangentially embarrassing to the president.

these are not contradictory. you can have both.

I heard an interesting idea that makes sense to me. What if Mike Pence is the leaker? He's got a lot to gain if Trump is ousted and probably not a lot of loyalty to the current President. He would also be privy to a lot of things that the White Hoise wouldn't exposed and would be in the perfect position to do it.

>>145012
Sarcasm doesn't translate well through text

>>145227
Interesting thought considering the thought that he's the last thing Libs will want, but he's the neo-con golden boy

>>145210
How the fuck is that not contradictory, retard?

>>146021
>you can have both

>(((We didn’t.)))
source? oh.
nvm.

>>146025
Not that anon, but please explain how anyone can 'root out and punish' leakers who're themselves 'fake news' concocted by the media. And if they DO exist, then why would the media have to make up imaginary sources when they have all the genuine dirt they need?

>>145227
Seconding this hypothesis. Pence would be the logical shoe-in for the Republican party if Trump becomes a liability, which he is well on his way to accomplish. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they've been scheming all along to scare America into accepting Mike as a good candidate. How's that for 4D chess?

>>146072
its not all or nothing,
some of the anonymous sources can be legit, some can be complete bullshit, and some can be a bit of both.

>>146113
And yet, we've seen more proof that they're legit than proof that they're bullshit. So, quite frankly, suck it.

>>144914
Just stop already Hillary.
You lost and you're lucky not to be in jail.

>>147655
>muh hillary
Why are you so obsessed?

>>146113
I understand your reservations, but consider this contradiction again; if the leakers are real, why would the media need to make them up and risk losing even more credibility than they already have? If they're fake, why is Trump making such a big deal out of them, and why are they so often verified to be genuine? Furthermore, Trump's cabinet is using exactly the same tactic to improve his image while reducing accountability, so two can play at this game.

Granted, there's a lot of gossip on both the left and the right that poisons the news, but the existence of dissatisfied insiders within the White House is very real, and their voices cannot be disregarded.

>>147655
Hillary would be in jail right now if he wasn't a such useless cuck

>>148595
Comey started an investigation on the basis of a document forged by Russians, leaked to him.
Republicans should be happy that he did as much as he had with respect to distracting from trump's gargantuan faults, when there was no evidence left to go on with respect to incriminating Hillary.

>>148614
And now that there's no excuse, Trump's back under fire again. It's funny how he just can't win.

>>145011
Why, because he doesn't like the Democrats either?

>>145042
>Skeptical person who doesn't believe in absolutes
So unusually rational?

>>145056
>When you realize the government is controlling the weather
I'm still amazed that the msm won't accept the proof that Obama faked the Sandy Hook shooting. That level of societal ignorance does explain though why we haven't all accepted that global warming was made up to crookedly win solar subsidies for the Chinese

>>147655
>Citizens discussing our leaders self-contradictions? This looks like a job for Captain Ad Hominem!

The election is over, this is the part where you defend your president's actions to better the lives of Americans and get over your undying hatred for Hillary... But then again unless you think ICE bullying immigrants is having a profound positive effect on the people of Wisconsin, Wyoming, or one of the many states without any considerable undocumented population, you might actually be smart sticking to the misdirection from Trump's blundering.

But to bite the b8: if Hillary was so guilty why didn't Trump move to prosecute her? Is it possible that he lied about that campaign promise?

>>145056
>>150052
cringe

>>144914
>Trump, unlike most politicians and, frankly, most people, will nonchalantly argue two logically inconsistent points at the same time.
>unlike
Unfortunately I get the feeling politicians in particular, but also anyone else who makes living of convincing people of bullshit, have been increasingly doing this.

Trump is just more brazen than most. It's the "political non-correctness" many love about him so.

Because who wants to believe him will do so regardless of how inconsistent he is. Leader is always right and if you think otherwise then you're Enemy.

>>150132
>Because who wants to believe him will do so regardless of how inconsistent he is. Leader is always right and if you think otherwise then you're Enemy.
Only Trump supporters tho, amiright comrade?

>>150148
My biggest issue with liberals is they don't have the ability to do a couple things -

Read between the lines (see the alterior intents behind legislation/regulation of things they agree with)

See the gradual shifting away from traditional conservative values will (and is) having terribly negative consequences wether they care or not

See that authority in scientific, government, and polling/crowd research are all driven by the same source (the ultra wealthy elite class) and are therefore not trustworthy - they also get shit wrong nonstop so there's another clue

There's complexity in things that seem black and white regarding the environment, war, and social issues ie. Black community needs to sort itself out, shutting down coal mines isn't a good solution, and civilians will die in war always.

Having pride or patriotism in your country is not evil or fascist, and nationalism is not reprehensible - it can be if it becomes a cultlike following but that can be said for any movement

If minorities and women can have pride groups, enjoy group focused classes, and earn special entry admissions and scholarships - the white people and men who are born today and have done none of the things they are told to feel bad about will begin to question the justice behind the decisions and begin to revolt/create their own groups.

Religion is not science for dumb people - it is a intrinsic and deep rooted personal philosophy based on faith and the stories often reflect on core humans truths filtered out through thousands of years of practice and observation. That's said, Islam is a political dogma since it supports forced conversion and killing, something no modern Religion supports (or else what's the point?)

The left has skewed so far to the left that my former left-liberal friends now call themselves liberatarians and conservatives

>>150152
>Read between the lines (see the alterior intents behind legislation/regulation of things they agree with)
Such as?

>See the gradual shifting away from traditional conservative values will (and is) having terribly negative consequences wether they care or not
for example...?

>See that authority in scientific,
which scientists?
>government
which governments?
>polling/crowd research
what research and by whom?

are all driven by the same source (the ultra wealthy elite class)
are you talking about Russian oligarchs, fossil fuel multinationals, and the Koch brothers? In what sense are they "driving" any above?

are therefore not trustworthy - they also get shit wrong nonstop so there's another clue

Convince me, using logic and evidence beyond the anecdotal.

>>145015
Op is kind of dumb. Sorry!
>You must believe that there are a slew of leakers in the executive branch who are providing damning details to the press illegally, and who must be rooted out and punished.
ok

>You must also believe that the press makes up imaginary leakers simply to slowly and incrementally report false stories
ok. Any reason to believe this is mutually exclusive to the leakers from inside the whitehouse? Why cant the two statements be true and be unrelated?
>The most recent examples of Trump making that case came on Sunday (“Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names,” he said on Twitter, “it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!”)
>“it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers
>it is very possible that those sources
>very possible
>possible
possible. as in p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e possible.

Does that statement say specifically that trump was talking about whitehouse leaks? Trump says that when a news station says "sources say" and doesnt provide a source that you should take what they say with a grain of salt. Something that should be common sense for everybody but when said by trump it becomes a proof of his hypocracy becuase he says someone is leaking info.

Also you seem to be under the assumption that leakers can not leak factual information then lie about it, putting their own spin on it.

>>150152
>My biggest issue with liberals is they don't have the ability to do a couple things - Read between the lines

It's called being an intellectual idiot. it's not exclusive for liberals but here you go.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e2d0577

>>150210
>are you talking about Russian oligarchs, fossil fuel multinationals, and the Koch brothers? In what sense are they "driving" any above?

Soros' role in pushing for more refugees through amnesty international and other NGOs
The Koch brothers lobbying for decreased regulations on fossil fuels which stifle innovation
Organizations providing for relief in third world countries which pushes their populations beyond the carrying capacity of their current society causing massive fallout

Whether intentional or unintentional, being ultra rich inherently means their actions have a greater impact so negative repercussions are to be expected.

>>150210
Never understand the Koch family meme. They're a liberatarian focused private company that tries to reduce government control in all sectors.

Soros litterally openly proclaims his godship and wants to unify the world under some global umbrella by causing revolutions and planting paid protestors in nations / pushing his adgenda by causing economic collapse. He's a bond villian.

>>150230
Provide a source for literally any of your claims.

Have any of the """"leaks""""" ever been proven right?

>>151497
“I fancied myself as some kind of god …” he wrote. “If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise they might get me in trouble.“ When asked by Britain’s Independent newspaper to elaborate on that statement, Soros doubled down: “It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.“

>British Independent, 1996 Interview

>>151505
"Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind."
"Small words, from a small being, trying to attack what it doesn't understand."

>Star Trek: First Contact, 1996

>>151508
So you're defending this I gather