Angry Trump tweets en route to golf round #114 because of the “political dummy” snit and the “Dear Jong” letter stating a withdrawal from the summit but now seems even more of a pathetic stunt.
Perhaps Matt Pottinger uses his Chinese name around Trump so 45* can’t remember a ”senior WH official” who in POTUS*’s mind “doesn’t exist”, but gave a widely known audio briefing on Thursday.
It’s been a hard week, so many lies repeated, this time to the Naval Academy, and now it’s about the on-off-again Singapore summit.
The briefing, according to an email TPM and other news organizations received Thursday from the White House press office, was held in the White House briefing room and scheduled by White House staff. Reporters from around the nation were invited to call in to the briefing on a White House-provided phone number, using a White House-provided access code.
Here’s the text of that email:
Background Briefing with Senior White House Official on North Korea
This afternoon, a senior White House official will hold an off-camera, not for broadcast, background briefing on North Korea. The briefing will be conducted in person and via conference call at 3:30PM EDT, and the information will be embargoed until the conclusion of the briefing. The number of lines are limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis, so please limit to one per outlet. Please find the updated dial-in information below.
In Person: White House Briefing Room
Participant Dial-In: [redacted]
Access Code: [redacted]
Trump has a long record of asserting that unnamed sources who provide inconvenient information don’t exist. His White House and others before it also have a long record of providing unnamed sources to the press corps in order to tell their side of the story in a more candid atmosphere.
Ronald Kessler reported in his recent book that Trump himself frequently acts as an unnamed source to news outlets. And as a New York City tabloid star before his political career began, Trump sometimes used fake personas when speaking to reporters.
*Date:* May 26, 2018 at 11:24:27 AM EDT
*Subject:* *Pool Report No. 4*
Motorcade turned into Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia at 11:19 a.m.
Pool is holding at a nearby restaurant. —
*Subject:* Pool Report No. 3 - departure from White House
Motorcade pulled out at 10:34 a.m.
POTUS is wearing a white shirt and a white baseball cap. He appears to be wearing golf shoes.
*Date:* May 26, 2018 at 10:16:56 AM EDT
*Subject:**Pool Report No. 2 - Singapore update*
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has sent an update on pre-advance team travel:
The White House pre-advance team for Singapore will leave as scheduled in order to prepare should the summit take place.
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