In pretty much every element of his transition to the presidency, Trump lacks even the most basic transparency. He makes a lot of bold statements—He won’t have any conflicts of interest! We’ll love whatever replaces the Affordable Care Act! He totally understands foreign policy!—but he rarely backs those statements up with any actual facts or plans. Whenever information is leaked or circulated, Trump has taken to crying “fake news!” Which is hard to dispute (or prove) because, well, that whole lack of transparency thing.
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest has some advice for Trump, though, if he wants to stop the spread of this so called “fake news,” be it about his ties with Russia, his business-related conflicts of interest, or, say, the defiling of a certain hotel bed. Earnest wants to remind Trump that President Obama dealt with similar issues of fake news. Not that Trump needs reminding, since he was at the forefront of perpetuating this particular rumor.
There were a wide variety of the president’s critics who were suggesting and propagating conspiracy theories that somehow the president was not born in the United States.
Yeah, remember that whole birther thing? That was fake news. And it was (in theory, not that people who believed Obama was foreign-born actually cared about facts) pretty darn easy to dispel.
All of you could look at that piece of paper and verify for yourself to be convinced that the charges against the president — that were lobbed against the president — were false.
So why isn’t Trump doing the same thing?
The incoming administration has chosen a different approach. They’ve not been transparent.
A “different approach” is a pretty fantastic way to basically say “they’re hiding stuff!” It’s a very subtle burn made of side-eye. Earnest continues,
There’s ample evidence they could marshal to make public to refute those claims, those accusations they say are baseless, but refuse to do so,” he said. “That kind of secrecy only serves to sow public doubt.
Yup, if only Trump had a way to prove wrong so many of the claims against him. Oh wait, he does. Because remember, Trump still hasn’t released his tax returns. He’s the only incoming president since Watergate not to do so. He wants all this “fake news” to stop? Well, it’s pretty easy. Or, at least, it was for Obama.
(via Pajiba, image via Shutterstock)
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