Trump: Dems, 'Corrupt Press' Got Played on 'Rage Narrative' (AP)
By Eric Mack | Thursday, 23 May 2019 10:45 AM
Ostensibly placeboing resistant Democrats and the "fake news media," President Donald Trump was purposely "calm" in his walk out with Democratic leadership only to see them claim "rage" and have the "fake and corrupt press" report it that way, as expected.
The claim came via tweet Thursday:
"I was extremely calm [Wednesday] with my meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, knowing that they would say I was raging, which they always do, along with their partner, the Fake News Media. Well, so many stories about the meeting use the Rage narrative anyway - Fake & Corrupt Press!"
The claim of "rickrolling" – the modern-day bait and switch – also was made Wednesday night via Twitter:
"In a letter to her House colleagues, Nancy Pelosi said: 'President Trump had a temper tantrum for us all to see.' This is not true. I was purposely very polite and calm, much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden. Can be easily proven. It is all such a lie!"
President Trump's trolling of his political opposition – Democrats and "fake news media" – was indeed an orchestrated tactic, according to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
"It's clear that this was not a spontaneous move on the president's part; it was planned," Schumer told reporters in the Capitol. "When we got in the room, the curtains were closed. The president — there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldn't do infrastructure. And of course then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting."
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders admitted Thursday on CNN the placards on President Trump's podium – railing against the special counsel investigation as a witch hunt – were printed weeks in advance.