As is custom in the United States, we wake up, yawn, remember that it's 2017, grab our phones, and then, bleary-eyed, go on Twitter to see what messages our president has hastily tapped that will rule our lives for the next 24 hours.
And on Saturday, like clockwork, President Donald Trump was at it again, tweeting about "wire tapping."
The president appears to believe that former President Barack Obama—a favorite target of Trump's—had directed a "wire tapping" operation at Trump Tower in New York City, where Trump spent the majority of his time before he moved south to Washington, D.C.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
And not that it should come as a surprise, but: The president's tweets appear to be based on incorrect and/or incomplete information.
To begin with, the idea that Obama directed an operation to listen in on communications at Trump Tower is dubious at best.
And then there's the fact that—according to The Washington Post—folks at the White House were passing around a Breitbart story on Friday, in which Breitbart cribbed a timeline from conservative radio host Mark Levin, that supposedly outlines when and how the Obama administration constructed a spy operation against then-candidate Trump. The story describes Obama's supposed tactics as "police state" operations, and Trump described them as "McCarthyism." So, if the dots are truly connected already: the president's accusing a former president of "wire tapping" based on claims made by a conservative radio host, which were then cited in an article in a publication formerly run by Steve Bannon, who's now Trump's chief advisor.
Of course, underlining all of this is the temptation to wonder whether or not Trump just admitted that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had grounds to believe Trump associates were communicating with Russian officials from inside Trump Tower, and therefore, issued a warrant to gather communications.
Maybe Trump Tower was tapped? Maybe Trump just verified that a FISA court had grounds to grant an espionage warrant?
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) March 4, 2017
Is Trump this AM confirming accounts FBI sought a FISA warrant to collect intel on Trump associates communicating with Russian officials?
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 4, 2017
Who knows! But the fact remains that Trump associates were, in fact, repeatedly in contact with Russian officials prior to Trump's inauguration. Meanwhile, the BBC's reported that officials from the Department of Justice got a secret intelligence FISA warrant back in October to look into two Russian banks (though Trump wasn't named). Rumors and hints about other possible FISA warrants have swirled like a tornado that may, at any moment, make a sharp turn right into the Trump administration, whose ties to Russia have already cost them an appointee and the political loss that is Jeff Sessions having to recuse himself from any investigation into Trump's ties to Russia.
But the idea that Trump's own phone was "tapped" inside Trump Tower—as alleged by Trump himself—is still so explosive as to make all other truly wild stories about this administration seem like fond and distant memories of a calmer life. Such a warrant would mean the court believed there was a good chance Trump is an agent of a foreign country.
So, depending on where your thoughts go from there, you should either purchase an English-to-Russian dictionary, or go back to eating your cereal, let alone your coffee, if you've even had it yet.
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