Was It All Just A Setup

[erpowers]

Did Donald Trump use and promote fake news during his campaign in the hopes that mainstream media outlets and members of the left would take up the term? Did he hope he would then be able to use the term against them? Today, at his press conference (I did not watch. I just say a clip.) he said CNN was a fake news outlet. Was that all part of the plan? Was it his goal to be able to claim that any negative story about him was fake news from a fake news outlet, even if the story was true?

Also, was this dossier a plant? How do we know this supposed ex-British intelligence officer is not a Trump friend who is trying to help Trump by discrediting all intelligence that would provide negative information on Trump? Even if he is a trusted U.S. intelligence source, how do we know he is not a Trump friend trying to help out Trump? Was this story put out by the Trump team in a effort to discredit any future true stories about Donald Trump's ties to Russia? What if, as some people say, the intelligence community does have some damaging information on Trump? If he can successfully discredit the intelligence community now, when they attempt to put out the truly damaging information about him he will be able to point back to this intelligence failure and say, if they got it wrong that time why would you think they would get it right this time?

[jaysunb]

1. Trump is not that smart. n/t

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. I don't think he is either. nt

[madokie]

12. He is not that smart, we all know that

but he has some conniving mo'fo's around him some of who are.

I remember what they did to Dan Rather.

[jaysunb]

20. You are absolutely correct. n/t

[bettyellen]

27. Nope but this exactly the campaign Putin wanted him to run- to upset and confuse voters and get th

Them to disengage. Funny how this is ignored when talking about how few people came out.
It's all because Hillary was hated and flawed- also Putins memes. Wake up people!!

[TrekLuver]

3. They know who the British Intel guy is...he has a good reputation...but I thought about the

same thing with the "fake news" point that you made. I also thought about his constant put down of the intelligence...perhaps that was his way of getting out ahead of this.

[Raster]

7. Also this information about tRump and his Russian connections began....

...approximately FIVE YEARS AGO, long before Candidate tRump.

[Caliman73]

24. Remember that Trump has considered running since the 80's

He was considering putting his hat in the ring during the last few cycles as well. I am sure that the Russians were sizing him up for a long time.

[Raster]

26. Oh yes... I have been following "potential candidate tRump" for a number of years...

...AND STILL BELIEVE, that tRump really does not want the Presidential responsibilities. He wants the glory and the title, alright, just not the tough stuff. Typical.

And yes, the reports about Pootie-poot sizing him up have been around for years.

[Alekzander]

4. If he did or not, the media let it & is letting it happen. Basically, he is getting away with

whatever he wants to do.

[Raster]

5. There are reports that IT IS MORE THAN ONE SOURCE, IT IS MORE THAN ONE DOSSIER...

...Don't give tRump that much credit.

[Vinca]

6. If you were going to plant a story on yourself, would you use pee as a basis for it??

The Donald definitely would not. Even if it was 24k gold pee.

[madokie]

22. In this case he is wanting to make it look so unbelievable as to be laughable

He's a conniving no good bastid and its as simple as that.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

8. We need to get our story straight ...

Either he's a dummy or a mastermind. He can't be both. I vote dummy.

[BainsBane]

11. He has a certain kind of intelligence

He's a master manipulator. I don't believe for a second, however, that he planted that report.

[Raster]

28. I agree wholeheartedly. He is not stupid, and is a master manipulator....

...HOWEVER, his narcissistic personality disorder seems to call the shots for tRump. And NO, he or his cohorts -or 4-chan script kiddies, for that matter- planted this report and others like it.

Flawed man, flawed President-elect...flawed, flawed, flawed.

[TrekLuver]

17. It's somewhere in between...but closer to the dummy side than mastermind.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. No. It's just another "No puppet! No puppet! You're the puppet!" moment from Trump.

I.e., A simple reflexive knee-jerk act of projection.

Easily debunkable fake news websites helps to build up sentiment against Hillary and in favor of Trump during the campaign, and mainly after the fact, people begin to call out such dubious means as shady and underhanded.

But the "fake news" term becomes part of the everyday lexicon, and Donald Trump decides to co-opt the term to attack any sort of news about him that he doesn't like as "fake news."

But it doesn't take a whole lot of effort on his part.

[bettyellen]

30. The co-opting others info is an old well known mud slinging technique-

He employs it often. Today it was the Nazi thing.
Yesterday it was they're lying /hiding things.
All of t confused and normalizes his sickness. Exactly what Putin asked him to do.

[BainsBane]

10. No, he's a vindictive tyrant

And that dossier is not a set up. Whether the info contained in it is true is still being investigated, but the intelligence services consider reliable the former MI6 agent who compiled it.
That some trumpeter on 4 chan claims they made it up doesn't make it so. It's being taken very seriously by the intelligence services.

[2naSalit]

13. +1

[uponit7771]

25. +1

[bettyellen]

31. 4-Chan is totally swamped w Russian trolls and bots ...

As is Reddit and Twitter, but 4-Chan is the worst.

[CentralMass]

14. Slight of hand to take the focus away from his Ryssizn financial ties ?

[Doreen]

15. Don't forget that it was HIS cabinet pick and son

that started some of the fake news but against Hillary. He believes he is allowed to do harm to others but they are not allowed to do it to him or defend themselves from him. HE IS A DICTATOR!!!!

[Alice11111]

16. Very Savvy move by someone savvy in DT camp

Write down all the truths finally brought to light by the intelligence agencies regarding DT'S camp's treasonous acts. Put them in a rumpled, redundant, disorganized document, that looked and read like something in the Alien Museum in Roswell. Throw in something over the top, even for DT. Wad the whole piece of paper up, with news included, and call it fake News. Symbolic and successful, at least to most Americans. It makes Putin look bad, so he has to denounce facts about trump that he planned to use in the future. Isn't this the kind of thing Bannon did in the campaign? Isn't this why they have him on staff?

[ConnorMarc]

18. Trump Is Many Things, But He's No Dummy

Neither are the people around him.

Let's not make that mistake folks.

[LanternWaste]

19. is there any objective evidence pointing specifically towards a plant?

Other than Trump's own protestation, is there any objective evidence pointing specifically towards a plant?

[Generator]

21. Read my links on the other thread

Don't believe Trump lies. It's a real man with a real name. It's not "news"

http://www.wsj.com/articles/christopher-steele-ex-british-intelligence-officer-said-to-have-prepared-dossier-on-trump-1484162553

A former British intelligence officer now working for a private security-and-investigations firm produced the dossier of unverified allegations about President-elect Donald Trump’s activities and connections in Russia, people familiar with the matter say.

Christopher Steele, a director of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., prepared the dossier, the people said. The document alleges that the Kremlin colluded with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and claims that Russian officials have compromising evidence of Mr. Trump’s behavior that could be used to blackmail him. Mr. Trump has dismissed the contents of the dossier as false and Russia has denied the claims.

This is what was given to Obama and congress as well. It's not a super clever Trump. Don't believe his lies.

[joshcryer]

23. This is the modus operandi for right wingers. Appropriate terms used against them.

Always. They will take whatever terminology used against them and turn it and twist it to represent their enemies.

[Doug.Goodall]

29. It was never proven Karl Rove setup Dan Rather

I heard a few stories that Rove planted the story that caused Rather to choke. The way the Trump watersports story spread and then was discredited instantly made me think this was another Rovian piece of work.