Report: Obama was furious after Trump accused him of wiretapping - Former President Obama was reportedly furious after President Trump fired off tweets accusing him of wiretapping Trump Tower before the presidential election, according to a new report.
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| Report: Obama was furious after Trump accused him of wiretapping |
An aide to Obama told the Wall Street Journal the former president had decided he would not respond to every one of the his successor's tweets. But people familiar with Obama's thinking told the WSJ he was livid after Trump posted several tweets early Saturday morning making serious accusations.
"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" Trump first tweeted on Saturday, without evidence.
An Obama spokesman later responded:
"A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," said Kevin Lewis. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
Trump's allegations have widened a rift between Trump and his predecessor, according to the report, who made an effort to be cordial during the transition.
Trump also reportedly believes that officials loyal to Obama have been behind the leaks coming out of the administration.
Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax Media and a friend of the president, told the Wall Street Journal that "Trump's people think Obama is at war with them."
He reiterated the idea that allies of president Obama were behind "a lot of the problems."
"This president has been under siege since Day One from both the press and Obama loyalists and he's reacting to it," Ruddy said. "I don't think there's any doubt that Obama loyalists inside the administration and outside are giving Donald Trump a lot of grief and a lot of problems."
