Photo of Trump via the White House Flickr; magazine cover via TIME
According to a new report from Politico, President Donald Trump gets some of his information from fake news stories his aides intentionally leave on his desk. So much so, that his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, recently had to issue a warning to senior staff members and update the White House policy on providing the president information.Apparently aides drop all kinds of printed stories on Trump's desk in an attempt to sway policy, vie for his good graces, or some combination of the two. Just recently, Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland reportedly handed the president two covers of Time. The first, ostensibly from the 1970s, claimed the world was on the brink of an impending ice age. The second, from 2007, contained a guide to surviving global warming.
But the 1970s cover (left) was a complete hoax—a doctored image that's reportedly spread like wildfire among right-wing bloggers, conspiracy theorists, and Twitter eggs. After seeing it, Trump got so angry that his staff had to step in before he took to Twitter. That prompted the warning from Priebus."They have this system in place to get things on his desk now," one White House official told Politico. "I'm not sure anyone follows it."Additionally, a different aide reportedly passed Trump a story back in February alleging that Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh was "the source behind a bunch of leaks" from the White House to the press. It'd come from GotNews.com, helmed by Charles C. Johnson—a right-wing firebrand who's been banned from Twitter for harassment—who gave no evidence for the accusation. Whether he believed it or not, Trump reportedly then started asking other staff members about Walsh, which is nuts, considering the headline looked like this:
"Katie was a key member of the team and is a trusted friend and ally of the White House," Bannon said in a statement. "No one in the White House took that article seriously."Still, someone felt the need to put that story on Trump's desk, suggesting that a guy who may or may not use email, and who usually gets his news from cable TV, could be swayed by a few alternative facts.Follow Drew Schwartz on Twitter.
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