Early in the morning on March 4, 2017, President* Donald Trump once again took to Twitter to blow off some steam. He was particularly agitated after a couple of days of serious media fallout surrounding his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. Following the revelation that during his Senate confirmation hearing, he had made misleading or false statements under oath about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, Sessions chose to recuse himself from investigations into related matters and asked to "amend" his sworn testimony to the Senate. (When ordinary people lie under oath and are caught, they are accused of perjury, but when members of the Trump administration do the same, they apparently get a do-over. However, that is beside the point here.)
In a series of tweets, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of "wire tapping" the Trump Tower in New York. He lashed out at his predecessor and called him a "bad (or sick) guy", in his familiar stunted vocabulary. The tweets were probably spurred by a short reference in Fox News to a recent article from Breitbart about a story from angry right-wing radio host Mark Levin, in turn referencing an old allegation from Heat Street that a FISA warrant had been granted in October 2016 for some kind of surveillance of communication at Trump Tower. Fox is a mainstream news outlet, albeit right-leaning and notoriously apologetic towards Donald Trump. Breitbart is an extreme right-wing source founded by Steve Bannon, and Heat Street is a right-wing source of British origin and dubious quality. Mark Levin, who is at the heart of this story, is one of the more notorious "angry white guy" right-wing conspiracy theorists and has absolutely no credibility at all. President* Trump's lack of propensity for checking his sources is infamous by now. The Heat Street article, which has not been independently verified, was published in early November 2016, but Donald Trump treated the entire story as news, and claimed he had "just learned" about the wire tapping, without citing any sources or evidence.
Now, misinterpreting what was just shown on Fox News and ranting about it in public is nothing out of the ordinary for a president who is well known to have a short temper and bad judgment, who constantly lies about issues
great and small, has a weak grasp on reality and displays an utter inability to handle setbacks and
criticism. People in his own administration were taken by surprise by
the tweets, but being numb from several similar incidents in the past, they
didn't really bother responding.
Somewhat surprisingly, several mainstream news outlets did respond, though. In fact, they took the allegations seriously, as if Donald Trump was a real president and a grown-up person, and made a story of it. At first, it seemed strange that they would take anything as outlandish seriously, but a pattern emerged after a while. By taking the preposterous allegations at face value, the mainstream media reported about a president literally accusing his predecessor of criminal activity, which is a very serious matter indeed. As a result, President* Trump lost control of the narrative, and within hours the story turned against him and blew up in his face.
It is a fact that a president of the US cannot legally authorize wire tapping of a US citizen. The so-called FISA bill, signed into law in 2008, makes it possible to monitor domestic communications, but for that to happen, a strong case needs to be made by a prosecutor to a special, secret court, and a warrant must be issued. The claim by Trump that he "has been" wire tapped, not that he "might have been", is an outright admission that he thinks that wire tapping took place. If this was done without a FISA warrant, it is highly illegal, which makes the allegations against former President Obama a very serious matter. It would obviously require President* Trump to elaborate and pursue the matter further. During the day following his morning tweets, he was asked to do exactly that, even by Republicans who would be considered his political allies. Calling for this course of action holds President* Trump accountable for his statements, something that should of course be expected of a real president. In any normal presidency, words from the President of the United States would rightfully be respected and acted upon. For President* Trump, not so much. At least not until now.
If, on the other hand, the surveillance had legal footing, it would mean that some government intelligence authority like the FBI made a case to the FISA court and had a warrant issued. This means that they could present a strong case of someone in the Trump Tower being involved in serious criminal activities involving contacts with a foreign hostile power. This would be very damning indeed to Donald Trump and his administration.
By making these public statements, President* Trump has, figuratively speaking, shot himself in the foot. Either he needs to follow through on his accusations against President Obama, or admit to the wire tapping being legal. In that case, it can be argued that his public admission, in his role as the President, of the wire tapping constitutes a de facto declassification of the existence of a FISA warrant, and that this should be formally acknowledged by the government.
Of course, he could just admit that he lied and tweeted baseless claims quoted from a crazy extreme right-wing source without credibility, but that seems to be something which would not come easy to Donald Trump.
The constant stream of nonsense, stupidity and lies from President* Trump is seriously damaging for his public image and his credibility, and he seems unable to act like a responsible adult. The decision by several news organizations to handle his latest tweet-storm as if he wasn't a petulant child shows exactly how he is unfit to serve. A president who can't be taken seriously is ineffective, ridiculous and dangerous. Donald Trump simply cannot be allowed to remain in office.
