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Donald Trump’s questionable history with facts and sources

DONALD Trump has explained his Sweden gaffe using questionable sources. In the President’s case, it’s a trend that dates back well before the election.

Gavin Fernando
5 min read
February 20, 2017 - 5:02PM
Donald Trump has quoted unnamed sources despite criticising the media for doing the same thing.
Donald Trump has quoted unnamed sources despite criticising the media for doing the same thing.

FOR all his ongoing attacks on the mainstream media, Donald Trump has a lot to answer for himself.

The President continues to attack media outlets who have criticised his government as “fake news”, suggesting neither their journalists nor their sources can be trusted.

But Mr Trump’s justification for his most recent misstep — in which he falsely implied Sweden had suffered a security/terror incident overnight — is an example of his own problematic sources of news and intelligence gathering.

His only source for the statement was a Fox News story that aired the night before. There was no terrorist attack in Sweden, just a program about concerns over immigration in Sweden.

The President has pledged to “hold the media accountable” and urged his supporters to shun any news stories that make reference to unnamed sources.

But based on his own history with such “sources” — and the recent actions of members of his own administration — many say Mr Trump is the last person who should be pointing the finger.

TRUMP USES FOX STORY TO DEFEND SWEDEN GAFFE

Mr Trump was widely criticised after he publicly implied a major security incident had occurred in Sweden.

Speaking to a crowd in Florida over the weekend, he made references to several countries that have taken in a disproportionate number of refugees.

“You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” he said.

“Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden!” He offered no further context at the time.

The move left many Swedes scratching their heads, because there has never actually been a terror attack in the country.

Even former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt hit back at the President’s statement.

Mr Trump has since attempted to clarify his stance, saying he was referring to “a story that was broadcast on Fox News concerning immigrants and Sweden”.

In the story that aired Friday night, Fox News correspondent Tucker Carlson interviewed documentary filmmaker Ari Horowitz.

“They often times try to cover up some of these crimes,” Horowitz said in the story.

His documentary claimed Sweden’s generous immigration policy was linked to a rise in crime, and alleges the government there was attempting to cover-up the link.

It did not detail any specific incident happening in Sweden this weekend, or in recent weeks.

While statistics show Sweden has received the second-highest number of asylum applications since the mass exodus of migrants in 2015, there is no proven link of a connection between immigrants and a rise in crime in the country.

TRUMP’S HISTORY OF UNNAMED SOURCES

Mr Trump has a well-documented history of lashing out at the mainstream media over “fake news” and questionable sources.

In the lead-up to the election, he explicitly told his followers never to trust sources that were unnamed.

Yet Mr Trump has his own history of using unnamed sources to defend sweeping statements with no confirmed factual basis.

Perhaps the most well-known case was his spearheading of the Barack Obama “birther” conspiracy.

In 2012, the celebrity billionaire led a conspiracy theory that Mr Obama, who as born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, was not born in the United States.

That same day, on August 7, he also used an unnamed source to justify his allegation Mr Obama had bought his house with the help of businessman Tony Rezko.

He used the same unnamed “credible source” to assert that Mr Obama had applied to Occidental College as a foreign student.

As it turned out, the whole thing was completely untrue.

Four years later, Mr Trump finally conceded on the birther theory, but refused to take questions on why it took him so long to admit he was wrong.

“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period,” Mr Trump said, refusing to take questions at the ‘press conference’ he called.

“Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.”

Then there was the time he used an unnamed “confidential source” to allege that Mr Obama had added over six trillion dollars to America’s debt in 2012.

A few years later, during his election campaign, the then-presidential nominee used unnamed sources to justify the “system” being “rigged”.

It’s not just Mr Trump who has this problem. Several other key members of his administration have been caught out for using unnamed sources and questionable references.

Over the weekend, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus himself used anonymous sources amid his attack on the media for doing such.

Speaking to Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Mr Priebus slammed the assertion that Mr Trump’s attacks on the press were for the purpose of restricting press freedom.

Instead, he claimed Mr Trump was simply criticising stories he believed to be false.

As an example, he referred to a New York Times story that used unnamed sources to allege that members of Mr Trump’s team had been in touch with Russian intelligence officials for up to a year before the election.

Criticising its lack of “direct sources”, Mr Priebus said: “They have made it very clear to me that that story in the New York Times is complete garbage. And quite frankly, they used different words than that.”

When asked to clarify who actually told him the story was false, Mr Priebus would not answer, saying “I’m not going to tell you”.

“Now wait a minute, Reince, you just complained about unnamed sources, you’re using an unnamed source,” said Wallace.

“Well because I didn’t ask for approval to use their name,” Mr Priebus responded. “But I will tell you this: When I say top-level people, I mean top-level people.”

Members of Mr Trump’s own administration have been guilty of citing questionable sources, including Reince Priebus (L) and Kellyanne Conway.
Members of Mr Trump’s own administration have been guilty of citing questionable sources, including Reince Priebus (L) and Kellyanne Conway.

Kellyanne Conway, the White House counsellor, also infamously coined the term “alternative facts”.

Ms Conway was widely panned after she referred to the non-existent “Bowling Green massacre” during an interview.

She later tweeted that she meant to say “Bowling Green terrorists” - referring to two Iraqi men who were indicted in 2011 for trying to send money and weapons to Al-Qaeda, and using improvised explosive devices against US soldiers in Iraq.

Last week, Ms Conway was banned from MSNBC’s news program Morning Joe, with the hosts concluding she is simply “not credible anymore”.

‘HELP KEEP THE MEDIA ACCOUNTABLE’

Amid all these questions over named sources and media accountability, the Trump administration has issued a plea to its supporters urging to “help keep the mainstream media accountable ”.

“You know that I don’t trust the media to report on anything we achieve,” his administration wrote in an email last week. “Instead you — the American people — are our last line of defence against the media’s hit jobs.

“You are our greatest asset in helping our movement deliver the truth to the American people.”

The email requests that this supporters take his “Mainstream Media Accountability Survey”, in order “to fight back against the media’s attacks and deceptions”.

The 25-question survey asked supporters to rank its support of individual major American news outlets, including MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.

The final question asks whether Mr Trump’s party should spend more time and resources “holding the mainstream media accountable”, hinting that it might seek to implement restrictions on press freedom.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/donald-trumps-questionable-history-with-facts-and-sources/news-story/52ee0dc6e46e8a7f2c885e20d05fa8d8