Earlier this week, it was announced that the Donald Trump administration were preparing to file charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange which would lead to his arrest. In response, the group decided to remind the president of where he stood on the issue just a few months ago.

WikiLeaks on Trump

Years before Donald Trump became a candidate for president, he spoke out in strong opposition to WikiLeaks. Back in 2010, the former host of "The Apprentice" referred to the organization as "disgraceful," while calling on those who took part in leaking classified information to be given the "death penalty." While that may be how Trump felt before he made his campaign offical, during the 2016 election, the billionaire real estate mogul had a new found love of the group and their actions.

"I love WikiLeaks!" Trump said during a campaign rally last year, in regards to the damaging information that the organization released about Hillary Clinton. Reports have since confirmed that Russian hackers obtained private information from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, which were then allegedly given to WikiLeaks, who released them in batches at a time during the remainder of the election. Despite this, WikiLeaks recently announced it could reveal controversial information about the CIA, which didn't go over well with the White House. In addition, earlier this year WikiLeaks tweeted out that they would release Trump's tax returns if anyone had them and sent them to the hackers.

After it was announced this week that the administration was planning to target and arrest Julian Assange, WikiLeaks took to Twitter on April 22 to poke fun at Trump's previous remarks.

On their official Twitter account over the weekend, WikiLeaks took a shot at the commander in chief.

"Donald Trump, October 10, 2016: 'This just came out. WikiLeaks! I love WikiLeaks!'" the tweet read, while attaching a GIF file of the the president making the remark in question. In an additional social media message, the group noted the apparent timeline in leading to the administration's decision to go after Julian Assange.

"Wednesday 'WikiLeaks will show illegal actions by the CIA'...Friday 'US prepares charges to arrest Assange."

Moving forward

As WikiLeaks prepares their defense of Julian Assange, Donald Trump has been surprisingly quiet on the issue, letting other members of his team do the talking. In response, some of the president's strongest supporters have spoken out over the issue, noting their apparent betrayal over Trump wanting to target Assange.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED