Thursday marked an alarming shift in President Donald Trump’s already disturbing attacks on the media.
Buried in a tweetstorm about the “fake news” and the press being the “enemy of the people” was a striking claim about Trump’s May 2017 interview with NBC News.
“When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!” Trump tweeted.
“Fudging tape” is an entirely new claim that has not been supported by any evidence.
It was, of course, during that interview that Trump spoke about his decision to fire former FBI director James Comey.
Trump told Lester Holt, “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’”
Those comments instantly became fodder for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as he looks at whether the president knowingly sought to interfere or obstruct the Russia probe, by firing someone who could potentially implicate him or his top advisers.
But what’s so alarming is that Trump is now telling his followers not to believe anything they hear that might be negative — even when those words are the president’s own.
WATCH: Trump repeats allegations about Google, social media sites suppressing right-wing voices
It seems odd that Trump waited 15 months to suddenly claim that the words we all heard him speak were somehow false or altered — which raises one obvious question: why now?
READ MORE: Former Mexican president slams Donald Trump for trade rhetoric, says “he lies all day”
It has already been a week full of other questionable claims from the commander-in-chief.
Trump tweeted that Google was suppressing positive coverage of his administration, without offering proof.
Later, he tweeted a video that falsely claimed Google failed to promote Trump’s state of the union address on its homepage while promoting Barack Obama’s.
READ MORE: Google refutes claim that it promoted Barack Obama’s speeches but not Donald Trump’s
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that “China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server,” forcing the FBI to issue a rebuke of the president, saying that his claim simply wasn’t backed by any evidence.
The president even seemed to admit that he had at one point tried to fire both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
All of this suggests the White House is adopting a siege mentality, with the president lashing out more frequently.
Increasingly, Trump is acting like a man who’s cornered.
But if he’s looking to explain away his problems, he may have a hard time hiding from his own words.
Jackson Proskow is Washington Bureau Chief for Global National.
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