Trump, who does not read books, loves to watch TV. And, like many Americans, he likes to tweet about what he’s watching. On Thursday morning, he plagiarized a Fox News broadcast about a recent op-ed published by Chelsea Manning, who leaked classified U.S. cables to Wikileaks and was recently pardoned by President Obama.
14 minutes apart: Fox says "ungrateful traitor," Trump says "ungrateful traitor," Fox says "weak leader," Trump says "weak leader." pic.twitter.com/f7urTOUG1L
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 26, 2017
It’s abundantly clear that Trump didn’t read the article, which is actually about how Obama compromised his progressive vision. It’s also clear that Trump thought he had a winning issue in condemning Manning’s alleged treason.
But if anything Trump’s tweet showcases his convoluted relationship with Wikileaks. He was effusive in his praise for the organization during the campaign, after it published thousands of hacked emails from the DNC and John Podesta. Trump has no guiding set of beliefs about anything beyond what is good for him in the short-term.