White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that President Trump was considering the revocation of security clearances for a number of former intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former national security adviser Susan Rice, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and former NSA Director Michael Hayden.
According to Sanders, Trump’s reasoning behind the move is political, and she cited the former intel experts’ statements on Trump’s involvement with Russia:
They’ve politicized, and in some cases, monetized their public service. Making baseless accusations of an improper relationship with Russia is inappropriate.”
The Democrats were quick to criticize the move, and understandably so — punishing political rivals for saying things that you don’t like is much more akin to a banana republic than a democracy. The next logical step in such an administration would be for Trump to jail any opponent who runs against him in the next presidential election.
Outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan was much more candid, however, and offered another possible explanation for Trump’s behavior: That he’s just messing with these people. Or more specifically, that Trump is “trolling” them, in the parlance of the many supporters of the President on Twitter, who largely spend their days doing exactly that, only to regular users.
Watch the stunning admission:
As much as it is sometimes hard to concede a point of opinion to Paul Ryan, who has proved to be one of the biggest prevaricators in Congress, DC Tribune is inclined to believe the soon-to-be-retiree as he seems pretty honest in the moment.
At this point, it’s difficult to tell whether Trump learned the art of trolling from his followers who use it to great effect on the internet, or whether they learned it from him, but it sometimes feels like America may need a moderator like public forums do, to make sure nobody’s violating America’s Terms of Service.
Featured image via screen capture
