With each passing day of Donald Trump in the White House, a new story finds a way to take over the headlines. Over the weekend, it was Trump's allegation that former President Barack Obama had wiretapped his offices in Trump Tower that dominated the news cycle.
Trump on Obama
Despite his best efforts, Donald Trump has not been able to avoid the ongoing scandal involving his administration and the Russian government.
From the start of his campaign to his inauguration, the former host of "The Apprentice" has been linked back to the Kremlin in more ways than one. The latest bombshell revealed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been in contact with a Russian offical twice during the election, which he failed to mention during his confirmation hearing last month. As part of the administration's defense, Trump took to Twitter in recent days to blow off steam, while accusing Barack Obama of engaging in wiretapping at Trump Tower. As reported by The Hill on March 5, the president is not pleased.
According to The Hill, close ally to Donald Trump, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, confirmed that the president is not happy about Barack Obama possibly wiretapping his office.
"I spoke with the President twice yesterday about the wiretap story," Ruddy said, while noting, "I haven’t seen him this pissed off in a long time." "When I mentioned Obama 'denials' about the wiretaps, he shot back," Ruddy went on to say, quoting Trump saying, "This will be investigated, it will all come out. I will be proven right."
The allegations against the previous administration have been shot down by Obama and his team. In a statement released on Saturday, spokesman Kevin Lewis labeled the claims as "simply false." On Sunday morning, former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also disputed the story, stating, "the president of the United States does not have the authority to unilaterally order the wiretapping of an American citizen." The wiretapping claims come with no evidence outside of what appears to be an unverified article from Breitbart News.
However, even with no evidence, Donald Trump is pushing for an investigation into Obama and the Democrats over the issue at hand.
Moving forward
As of press time, Donald Trump has limited his comments about the wiretapping claim to just a handful of tweets, with his advisors keeping their comments on the allegations to a minimum. While the White House seems to be confident, it remains to be seen if there is anything to the story in question.