Donald Trump has reacted to allegations of a concerted Russian effort to tamper with the 2016 US election by sending a furious stream of tweets attacking everyone from his own National Security Adviser to Oprah Winfrey.
Everyone that is, except Russia.
The President spent the weekend once again at Mar-a-Lago but didn’t play his customary rounds of golf, perhaps conscious of how it would look just days after the mass shooting in a Florida school the Wednesday before.
Instead it appears Trump spent his time watching cable TV and becoming increasingly agitated.
Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were charged on Friday with conspiracy to tamper in the 2016 US election but rather than concentrate on what this potentially means for US democracy, the President focused on what it means for him personally.
2:26pm Saturday, Trump tweets: ‘I won fair and square.’
Despite winning the election over a year ago, Trump is still obsessed with showing he did just that.
Trump is also a little liberal with the findings outlined in Friday’s indictments - this specific case made no allegations of collusion but it’s safe to assume more will follow.
2:36pm Saturday - ‘There was no collusion.’
Again, these specific indictments made no allegations of collusion but the Special Counsel’s investigation is not over.
2:46pm Saturday - ‘The Russians couldn’t have been targeting me.’
Trump is correct - he did not officially announce his plan to run for president in public until 2016.
He did however, apply to trademark his ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan in 2012 and was telling people privately about his intention to run long before he made it public, including people linked to the Russian government.
3:11pm Saturday - ‘It’s the media’s fault.’
Again, rather than condemn the actions of Russia Trump instead lashes out at “fake news” and doubles-down on how he won the election.
Goldman also sent this tweet in the same thread but Trump chose not to highlight it.
And divisiveness has been a key pillar of Trump’s presidency. A Quinnipiac report last month concluded:
“The President is a divider, not a uniter, say an overwhelming number of voters, an assessment made even more disturbing by his perceived lack of respect for people of colour.:”
11:08pm Saturday - ‘The Florida shooting was the FBI’s fault.’
Nearing the end of the day and Trump reaches a low point by insinuating the massacre of 17 Florida schoolchildren could have been prevented if he was not being investigated for his links to Russia.
Even Joe Walsh who was a longtime staunch Trump defender took issue with this one.
11:22 Saturday - ‘Even my own National Security Adviser has it wrong.’
McMaster was speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference and there’s a good reason he didn’t mention all the things that have the President so animated - the indictments made no judgement on collusion and the investigation is ongoing.
McMaster was simply sticking to the script of the official findings and not making groundless assumptions.
7:02am Sunday - ‘What about Obama?’
There’s a good reason it was never investigated - the entire deal was above board and dates back to an arms agreement made in 1979.
7:22am Sunday - ‘I told you it was Obama.’
The President of the United States there, begging for affirmation. A strong look.
We’ll let Adam ‘Liddle’ Schiff himself take this one...
7:33am Sunday - ‘I did not say that.’
This simply isn’t true - there are tapes, transcripts and even tweets to the contrary.
And despite continued rumblings from his own intelligence agencies Trump instead chose to take Vladimir Putin at his word.
Speaking of the Russian leader in 2017, Trump said: “Every time he sees me, he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.”
8:11am Sunday - ‘Russia is laughing at us.’
He’s probably spot on here actually.
11:28pm Sunday - ‘I’m not insecure, you are.’
Here’s a section of that program in which people from both sides of the political divide talk about how they can get along better and reconcile their differences.
Trump didn’t make clear which facts were “incorrect” or what exactly he has against people having a mature discussion about politics but some people had a suggestion.
The President has been silent since that last tweet meaning he has still yet to condemn Russia for the allegations made in Robert Mueller’s indictments.