Fake News Media Said Trump's Golfing When He's Actually in Afghanistan
According to the establishment media, President Donald Trump was golfing for Thanksgiving. Again. Until, that is, he wasn’t.
Let me explain. The official story was that the president was going to be hitting the links for the holiday, something that the media certainly had a lot of fun with.
Newsweek’s story probably got the most play. It was originally titled “How is Trump spending Thanksgiving? Tweeting, golfing and more.”
“As with any other day of the year, Trump will probably be tweeting, or expressing his opinions in another way,” Jessica Kwong wrote, according to the New York Post.
Well, not quite:
CNN: President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to troops in Afghanistan, the first time he’s visited that nation, where the US has been at war for 18 years.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 28, 2019
That’s slightly awkward. How did that happen?
Basically, Kwong laid it out herself: She wrote the story before Donald Trump actually did any of the stuff in it.
Trump headed to Afghanistan to surprise U.S. troops on Thanksgiving https://t.co/f7Xeqz1ZGQ Deleting this tweet because it was written before knowing about the president’s surprise visit to Afghanistan-an honest mistake. Story has already been updated, as shown in the screenshot. pic.twitter.com/g9CfPaV2kQ
— Jessica Kwong (@JessicaGKwong) November 29, 2019
This was called “an honest mistake.”
Trump ended up serving food to troops at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, staying in the country for several hours and reporting that negotiations with the Taliban had been reopened.
“The Taliban wants to make a deal, and we’re meeting with them,” Trump said after a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, according to The New York Times.
“We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly,” he added.
Pres motorcade this morning pulls into Trump Intl Golf Club in West Palm Beach. By my count, his 61st visit to this course. It brings the number of days as Pres he’s been to a golf club to 224. pic.twitter.com/ixrHg8zvbP
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) November 27, 2019
So, what actually happened? Was there any golf played? Newsweek’s story still has that part of the article intact-ish, although it doesn’t make anything clear about the timeline.
“The president and first lady Melania Trump departed from Washington D.C. for the holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday afternoon. Trump held a campaign rally that evening in Sunrise, Florida, which is about 50 miles southwest of his resort, in which he claimed that there are people who want to change the name of Thanksgiving. His claim caused #WaronThanksgiving to trend on Twitter,” the story read.
“He spent Thanksgiving Eve, from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, playing golf at his Trump International Golf Club. It was closed to the press, according to his public schedule.”
WPEC-TV mentioned its reporters had traveled with the president’s motorcade as he played golf on Wednesday. As for the tweeting part, the BBC reported that pre-scheduled tweets were sent out to maintain the facade that the president was still stateside for security reasons.
“It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the New York Post. “He and Mrs. Trump recognize that there’s a lot of people far away from their families during the holidays and we thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
Just returned to the United States after spending a GREAT Thanksgiving with our Courageous American Warriors in Afghanistan! pic.twitter.com/b2vgY5BH6z
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2019
“It’s truly about Thanksgiving and supporting the troops,” she said.
However, the majority of the original Newsweek article — that he was going to be spending his time on Thanksgiving playing golf and tweeting was demonstrably false for an obvious reason: It was written before the things it talked about had actually happened. He wasn’t golfing on Thanksgiving. He was doing something entirely opposite.
The bottom of the story now bears a correction: “This story has been substantially updated and edited at 6:17 pm EST to reflect the president’s surprise trip to Afghanistan.” Yes, one might expect.
President Trump, for his part, had some fun with Newsweek’s financial woes while retweeting his son’s shot at the magazine:
I thought Newsweek was out of business? https://t.co/3ro4eSJloo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2019
It is, yes. And it made that fact known in a very embarrassing way.
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