Day 1,178: Trump laments anonymous sources three hours before using one himself

Donald Trump attacked one of his favorite targets Saturday, blasting the media for their use of anonymous sources. It’s a complaint he has cried about for years.

Trump anger seemed to rise from a scathing report by The New York Times that outlined Trump’s missteps in containing the coronavirus. Trump was furious even though the Times’ story quoted a litany of reports and emails written by members of his administration. It also named members of his Cabinet who warned him of impending dangers in direct conversations. Trump told them alarmists to “stop panicking” when he could have been taking far more action.

The health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar II, directly warned Mr. Trump of the possibility of a pandemic during a call on Jan. 30, the second warning he delivered to the president about the virus in two weeks. The president, who was on Air Force One while traveling for appearances in the Midwest, responded that Mr. Azar was being alarmist.

Even after Mr. Azar first briefed him about the potential seriousness of the virus during a phone call on Jan. 18 while the president was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Mr. Trump projected confidence that it would be a passing problem.

“We have it totally under control,” he told an interviewer a few days later while attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. “It’s going to be just fine.”

Despite claiming anonymous sources should not be believed, Trump used his own anonymous source —a “West Virginia Resident” — for a favorable quote just three hours later.

Trump’s tweet makes it impossible to decipher if he added context to an original quote or altered the text in any way. The naked hypocrisy was patently obvious, however.

1,178 days in, 284 to go

Follow us on Twitter at @TrumpTimer