On Saturday, Donald Trump started his day by tweeting that he believes President Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower just before his election victory in November. Citing no evidence, Trump called it a Nixon-Watergate level situation and compared it to McCarthyism.
The fiery allegations came bright and early, which seems to be a typical time for Trump to unleash a “tweetstorm.” They also came without warning according to The Washington Post, with officials from the White House claiming it was going to be a “down day, pretty quiet.” It should be noted that comparing the allegations to McCarthyism and Nixon is a step down from his infamous Nazi Germany comparison in January, which is progress:
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
In the tweets, the president seems to allege that Obama sidestepped the courts in order to go through with the wiretap, providing no attributions or citations for any of his claims. With Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other former aides facing scrutiny over their connections to Russia, some critics are claiming that Trump may have wanted to change the narrative with his accusation on Saturday. The tweets also seem to continue upon Trump’s criticism of his Democratic party opponents, like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
Neither The White House or President Obama have yet to make a public comment regarding the accusations, adding more mystery to them. There’s some speculation though that maybe Trump fears there’s a recording — or recordings — of him talking to Russian officials that’s about to leak, and he’s trying to get ahead of it. Who knows at this point? It could just be that Obama’s in Trump’s head, which was alluded to in this funny tweet from Obama’s former speechwriter, Cody Keenan:
Obama all up in your head like pic.twitter.com/QMWPX8lm5V
— Cody Keenan (@codykeenan) March 4, 2017
Then, in typical Trump fashion, the president appeared to get bored with his wild wiretapping allegations and moved on to his other favorite topic: The Celebrity Apprentice. Trump couldn’t help tweeting about Arnold Schwarzenegger leaving The Celebrity Apprentice after one season to get in one final jab at the action star.
Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Just don’t think that Schwarzenegger won’t respond:
You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker. https://t.co/SvAjuPdHfa
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 4, 2017
UPDATE: Obama spokesperson Kevin Lewis released a statement on Saturday regarding the accusations, stating Trump’s assertions are false and the Obama administration made a rule to never interfere with independent investigations:
“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
(Via The Washington Post)