On Trump’s sixth vacation weekend in a row, he woke up early to deliver a truly unhinged rant on Twitter. In short order he accused former President Obama of wiretapping his phones in Trump Tower. Called him “sick.” Claimed he may take him to court. And said it was as bad as Watergate.
He offered no proof of any of it.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
What the hell is Trump talking about? Nobody is quite sure.
Look at Trump Twitter projectile-vomiting of today. and ask: Is this guy stable? Would you allow him near your kids, pets, or sharp objects?
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) March 4, 2017
starting to really embrace paranoia as a personal aesthetic
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) March 4, 2017
Trump’s rant also seemed to paradoxically confirm that his administration is being investigated for criminality involving Russia, despite his assurances that they aren’t.
Is Trump this AM confirming accounts FBI sought a FISA warrant to collect intel on Trump associates communicating with Russian officials?
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 4, 2017
However, where Trump got his information is much simpler, and much more pathetic: He read an article on Breitbart, a website that promotes white nationalism and right-wing conspiracies.
Just days ago, they ran this article based on comments by disgraced right-wing radio host Mark Levin:
It’s a baseless accusation that Obama had spent much of the campaign trying to wiretap Trump Tower over concerns that he and his team were coordinating with the Russians to throw the election. If that were even true (and there is no evidence that it is), the scandal isn’t that the government tapped Trump’s phones, it’s that Trump was being monitored for subverting the election. One might think that committing treason would be the bigger scandal here. Stupidly, Trump just seemingly confirmed it during his rant.
Levin, whose own stupidity can’t be overstated, got almost everything wrong in the article, then lied about the rest. And while Breitbart and Trump claimed this was “Obama,” the truth is a wiretap would have almost certainly come from either the NSA or FBI. The FBI was run by Republican James Comey, hardly a man secretly working to elect Hillary Clinton. Furthermore, while Levin cites the New York Times and the Washington Post when referring to Trump’s relationship with the Russians, the most inflammatory claims, that Obama worked against Trump’s campaign with surveillance, has zero citations. They appear to be figments of his imagination.
Donald Trump woke up, read a conspiracy theory on the hoax website formerly run by his chief co-conspirator, and started tweeting.
— Alexandra Erin (@alexandraerin) March 4, 2017
As his time in office has already proved to be an unmitigated disaster, Trump has begun retreating further into right-wing delusions and away from reality. Now he’s getting much of his news exclusively from places like Breitbart. Their inherent racism, jingoism, and anti-liberal bias warp the president’s mind further towards conspiracies. And he’s publicly melting down about it.
Featured image via Sean Rayford/Getty Images
