President Donald Trump declared a virtual all-out war against one of his administration’s perpetual enemies on Monday.
That enemy wasn’t a hostile foreign nation or terrorist organization, but rather “traitors and cowards” within the White House who’ve been leaking information to the media in order to harm Trump and his team.
The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible. With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2018
Trump tweeted Monday, “The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible.”
“With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!” he added as a warning to those leaking against him.
According to Independent Journal Review, Trump’s tweet was posted shortly after the publication by Axios of a story which celebrated the leaks emanating from the White House as being “pretty fun” … at least for the anti-Trump media.
In fact, journalist Jonathan Swan even seemed to encourage more leaks from White House staffers in the future as he wrote, “Give me a call if you’d like to try it out.”
Swan’s article about leaking of course cited a number of anonymous leakers who revealed a variety of motivations for their unauthorized disclosures of information to the media.
While the most obvious reason for such leaks would be to harm the president and dispirit his supporters, the leaks are also used to settle internal squabbles and political scores, as well as sometimes to merely bring light to issues that had been ignored.
As for what Trump called the “so-called leaks” coming from the White House, he insinuated that some are over-exaggerated in their importance by the media. It should also be remembered that Trump has previously stated cryptically, “the leaks are real, the news is fake.”
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There is no doubt that some of the leaks being reported by the media are intended to hurt the president and his agenda, but it is also quite possible some leaks are traps set by Trump and his people to catch the “traitors and cowards” in the act of leaking.
This is a “war” against leakers, after all, and Trump is unlikely to play fairly as he tracks down and roots out those who are attempting to undermine his administration.