Trump Claims Senior White House Official Who Briefed Dozens Of Reporters ‘Doesn’t Exist’

Even as we’ve all become completely numb and desensitized to the president’s daily lies and exaggerations, POTUS still has the ability to say something so egregiously false that it leads folks to go “c’mon, man.”

Towards the end of a pre-golf tweetstorm Saturday morning that also included him somehow blaming his administration’s heinous policy of separating children from border-crossing migrants on Democrats, President Donald Trump whined about a New York Times report on the canceled North Korea summit. The president was unhappy that the story revealed there was disagreement within his administration about how to handle the Hermit Kingdom and a possible meeting with dictator Kim Jong Un.

Unlike what the Failing and Corrupt New York Times would like people to believe, there is ZERO disagreement within the Trump Administration as to how to deal with North Korea…and if there was, it wouldn’t matter. The @nytimes has called me wrong right from the beginning!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

And then he curiously claimed that a White House aide who briefed reporters on background about the potential summit simply didn’t exist and the Times was using a “phony source.”

The Failing @nytimes quotes “a senior White House official,” who doesn’t exist, as saying “even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.” WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

Now, here’s the relevant portion from the NYT piece:

As with so many issues involving this president, the views of his aides often have little effect on what he actually says. On Thursday, for example, a senior White House official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed.

Later on Friday, the president reinforced that possibility, saying on Twitter that if the meeting were rescheduled, it would “likely remain” on that day, “and, if necessary, will be extended beyond that date.”

It seems pretty clear within that context that the official in question spoke to numerous reporters on background in a briefing call. And immediately after the president sent his tweet saying the aide didn’t exist, reporters who were briefed called the president out.

I mean, every reporter on the call knows who this official was, and this official exists. And we all heard the official say it. https://t.co/iEiTEpHeyb

— Mike Warren (@MichaelRWarren) May 26, 2018

This official said this in a background briefing on Thursday https://t.co/rYX3dtQY5w

— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) May 26, 2018

This is a good example of why, at pretty much every background briefing, you'll hear an AP reporter ask why it's being held on background/why it's not on record. https://t.co/EYkrUszieZ

— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) May 26, 2018

.@realDonaldTrump is slamming the @nytimes for citing a senior White House official “who doesn’t exist,” but the portion of the article he appears to be referring to directly cites comments made at a background briefing the White House held for the whole press corps Thursday. pic.twitter.com/xVtZ1J4hPX

— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) May 26, 2018

Trump told two demonstrable falsehoods this AM, one about his administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant kids inclu infants from their parents, which he tried to claim wasn’t his own policy. The other was falsely claiming his own aide didn’t give a bg briefing.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 26, 2018

Trump saying a source doesn't exist that was actually an official White House background call may be the best illustration yet of the president vs the presidency.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 26, 2018

Eventually, the name of the official who gave the background briefing was made public.

The official is Matt Pottinger who serves on the National Security Council. He briefed dozens of reporters on background. https://t.co/5FUP7t8nYQ

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 26, 2018

Yashar Ali explained that he tweeted out National Security Council member Matt Pottinger’s name because he wasn’t in the briefing call and that background briefings are essentially like press conferences. In other words, Yashar wasn’t outing a source, especially since the call was open to the press corps.

2. To be clear, the only reason I tweeted Matt's name is because I'm not a White House reporter and I was not on this call. I do not believe reporters should violate off record or on background agreements under any circumstances. Not my agreement, so I can tweet.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 26, 2018

3. BTW a background briefing with the WH press corps is much different than an individual reporters conversation with a source. Even though I know who some reporters sources are, I still wouldn't out them. That would be unethical. Background briefings aren't the same thing.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 26, 2018

Anyway, my condolences to Pottinger for discovering he actually doesn’t exist.

UPDATE: Yashar Ali obtained audio from the briefing, which includes deputy press secretary Raj Shah introducing Pottinger to reporters.

4. I've obtained audio of the WH press briefing. You can hear Raj Shah, Deputy Press Secretary, introduce Pottinger (along with the terms – which are standard) and then Pottinger makes the statement that POTUS says was never made. Lots of reporters in briefing room and on phone. pic.twitter.com/2gEYkRSyTv

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 26, 2018