MELTDOWN

Trump Vilifies Washington Post as ‘Lobbyist Weapon’ for Amazon

And makes public a covert U.S. operation in Syria in late-night Twitter rant.

President Trump tore into The Washington Post in a series of angry tweets on Monday night, accusing the newspaper of making up news and being a “lobbyist weapon” for Amazon. Decrying the “fake news,” Trump said the newspaper, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, “fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad.” The president didn’t clarify what exactly was fabricated, but he seemed to be referencing a report from last week saying he ended a covert CIA program supporting moderate Syria rebels—a move long sought by Moscow. For its report on the matter—which cited U.S. officials—Trump dubbed the newspaper “as bad as ratings challenged CNN.” He went on to toss a conspiracy theory into the mix, writing, “Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?”