Trump Keeps It Classy Mocking ‘Pete BUTTedgeedge’

Donald Trump on Tuesday managed to crowbar a trademark playground-level insult to a political opponent in an unlikely setting—a comment praising The Washington Post. The former president—who has repeatedly dismissed the newspaper that chronicled his lies while in office as “fake news”—was apparently pleased with a Post article arguing that “none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited” as having contributed to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3. “Wow, is The Washington Post becoming legit,” Trump asked on his Truth Social platform, before going on to wildly overstate what the Post actually reported. “They just reported that the weak and totally ineffective Secretary of Transportation, Pete ‘BUTTedgeedge’ LIED when he said that the Trump Administration’s great and effective reduction in regulations, a giant job producer, had NOTHING to do with the East Palestine Train Derailment. It was just more Dem DISINFORMATION in order to deflect from their gross incompetence.” Trump added: “Really good investigative journalism by The Washington Post. Keep it going!”