April 12, 2018

Something Very Weird Is Happening in Trumpland Regarding Syria

Trump can’t get his Syria story straight, and his supporters are blaming the “deep state.”

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

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Donald Trump fancies himself a decisive leader. On the campaign trail he said he would never “telegraph” his military strategy, but early Wednesday morning, he appeared to do just that:

Now, just a day later, the president seems to have sharply reversed course, returning to Twitter in an effort to make his missile threat much less decisive sounding. 

So Trump now appears to be denying that in Wednesday’s tweet he blurted out too much about his strategy for responding to the recent chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Meanwhile, some of the president’s most prominent supporters are busy concocting bizarre conspiracy theories about the chemical attack. For example, Michael Flynn Jr.—the son of Michael Flynn, Trump’s original national security advisor who is now cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation—had this to say:

https://twitter.com/mflynnJR/status/984197168532738048

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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