Trump’s tell: Insults fly when the facts hit home

CNN and The New York Times must have hit a nerve this week when they reported that a preliminary assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency determined that the bunker buster bomb dropped on Iran had set back that country’s nuclear program by only a matter of a few months.

Photo montage by Canva

President Trump and his minions went nuclear, lashing out at the media with over-the-top fury. Trump has a tell. When he takes the vitriol to Defcon 1 and starts insulting every journalist who touched a news story, we can easily conclude the story must be true. It’s a pattern. When the facts don’t suit him, he goes into attack mode.

Trump wants the world to believe that his bold use of B-2 bombers “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. He has used that word multiple times, even in the hours immediately after the bombing before anyone could possibly know the extent of the damage. He used terms like “monumental damage”, “bullseye!!” and said at the NATO summit that Iran’s nuclear program was set back by decades. “It’s gone for years. Years,” he said.

He wants the world to believe that he has bombed Iran into submission and now they will come to the negotiating table with hat in hand, begging for a peace deal.

Then, the intelligence report was leaked that maybe Iran’s nuclear program wasn’t irreparably damaged after all.

How do we know the reporting probably is true and that Trump knows it? His first go-to attack when a true story hurts him is to call it fake news.

Then he goes into school yard bully mode. CNN should throw out “like a dog” the reporter who worked on the story. The New York Times reporters are “bad and sick people.”

“CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum.”

(He likes calling women “dogs”. He reserves “scum” for the lowest of the low – and it’s a term he’s used to describe journalists even way back in 2015 during a campaign appearance at the Iowa State Fairgrounds when he encouraged admirers to boo media on the press risers.)

Wrapping himself in the flag

Reacting this week to the intelligence report, Trump next tried to wrap himself in the patriotic flag of the pilots who flew the mission, saying the reporting had insulted them. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed reporters, saying they had undermined the pilots’ success.

"There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did and, because of the hatred of this press corps, are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible," Hegseth said.

Hatred of the press corps? Seems like the reporters were doing their jobs – providing crucial information to people worldwide who must decide whether Trump’s decision to step into a Middle East war was wise or not.

Although Trump called the report fake news, the Associated Press reports Trump “and his national security team subsequently confirmed that the report was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency.”

The AP quoted a New York Times spokesman as saying, “So their statement was fake, not the Times reporting.” He continued, “We’ll continue to report fully on the administration’s decision-making, including the president’s dispute with the Defense Intelligence Agency.”

How to handle a false story

Reporters make mistakes all the time. They’re not perfect. If Trump, or any leader, feels the reporting is wrong – the right way to handle it is to provide facts. Calmly. Like an adult.

But that’s not Trump’s style. He rejects facts. And he certainly doesn’t act like an adult.

So, here’s what to remember: when Trump starts calling reporters “dogs,” “scum,” or “enemies of the people,” it’s like a poker player’s tell. He’s bluffing. And the story he’s raging about? Odds are, it’s the truth.

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Great “Along the Mississippi” column this week by Ed Tibbetts on the mind-boggling move to slash the General Accounting Office, which saves taxpayers billions of dollars. Senators Grassley and Ernst sit on their hands and do nothing about it.

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