Yeah, Trump Was Talking About Dirt From Foreign Governments

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

I guess I might as well fess up to being wrong and be done with it. Here is our president complaining about all those people who think he shouldn’t accept campaign dirt from foreigners:

I meet and talk to “foreign governments” every day. I just met with the Queen of England (U.K.), the Prince of Wales, the P.M. of the United Kingdom, the P.M. of Ireland, the President of France and the President of Poland. We talked about “Everything!” Should I immediately…call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.

In Trump’s interview yesterday with George Stephanopoulos, neither man explicitly mentioned getting oppo from foreign “governments.” I figured this was negligent on Stephanopoulos’s part and deliberate on Trump’s part, but obviously that’s not the case. In today’s tweet, Trump specifically said he thought it was just fine for him to talk to “foreign governments.” Since the context is campaign oppo, he’s saying that it’s OK for a presidential candidate to accept scuttlebutt from an agent of a foreign government.

I didn’t think that even Trump would admit to that, but as usual, it turns out that he’s even worse than I ever thought.

UPDATE: For fuck’s sake:

President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign will handle damaging information on political opponents provided by foreign governments and entities on a “case by case basis,” according to the campaign’s top spokesperson.

Asked about Mr. Trump’s assertion that he would be receptive to dirt on rivals offered by foreigners, Kayleigh McEnany, the national press secretary for the president’s reelection bid, told CBSN’s “Red & Blue” that campaign staff should take the president’s comments as a “directive” to handle foreign dirt through a two-pronged approach. “The president’s directive, as he said, [it’s] a case by case basis. He said he would likely do both: Listen to what they have to say, but also report it to the FBI,” McEnany said.

They are really intent on digging themselves an ever deeper hole on this. I guess that’s what happens when you’re constitutionally incapable of ever admitting that you’re wrong.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate