Donald Trump loses it, changes his own Twitter photo to a quote about James Clapper

| 10:04 pm EDT May 8, 2017
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Donald Trump seemed to be less than thrilled at today’s testimony by retired Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates. The two testified in public Senate hearings in Trump’s Russia scandal. Trump responded tweeting false claims about what each of them had actually testified to. But then his behavior got downright weird.

Trump posted the following tweet to his account shortly after the hearings ended for the day: “Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is “no evidence” of collusion w/ Russia and Trump” (link). This was a highly misleading claim for two reasons. The first is that Clapper retired six months ago and has not been privy to any classified evidence that’s arisen since. The second is that Clapper made clear during his testimony that he was not involved in the FBI investigation into Trump and Russia.

But then Trump took his own misleading tweet about James Clapper, and put it into his own Twitter cover photo. As a result the lower third of the screen is the photo of his tweet, while the upper two-thirds is a staged photo of him and his staff (mostly old white men) all giving a stilted thumbs up in the Oval Office. As a result, the top of Donald Trump’s official @realdonaldtrump page on Twitter now looks like this:

Trump needs Twitter For Dummies

Donald Trump doesn’t exactly act mature or stable on Twitter to begin with, but this was bizarre even by his standards. The most logical interpretation is that Trump is so desperate to sell the false narrative about James Clapper, he’s now performing the social media equivalent of tattooing it on his own forehead. Update: Shortly after we published this article, he took down the Twitter photo in question. Help fund Palmer Report

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.