Trump retweets Fox News anonymous source story despite repeatedly attacking unnamed leak pieces
The President says that when reporters use anonymous sources 'it is very possible that those sources don't exist'
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has retweeted another Fox News report citing an anonymous source even though he has repeatedly railed against news outlets for using unnamed sources.
Mr Trump on Tuesday morning shared an article from Fox & Friends reporting that US spy satellites have detected North Korea loading two anti-ship cruise missiles on a patrol boat.
The story cites anonymous sources in the intelligence community, a practice that Mr Trump and his aides have frequently criticised.
“It's the first time these missiles have been deployed on this type of platform since 2014, US officials with knowledge of the latest intelligence in the region told Fox News”, the author, Lucas Tomlinson, wrote. Tensions between the US and North Korea have intensified over the past few months as the latter continues to ramp up its nuclear weapons programme.
In an interview with Fox & Friends a few hours after Mr Trump retweeted the news story, Nikki Haley, the US's ambassador to the United Nations, indicated that the information in the report is classified and was leaked.
“I can't talk about anything that's classified and if that's in the newspaper that's a shame,” Ms Haley said when asked about the article.
Pushed on whether the information was leaked, Ms Haley said “it's one of those things I don't know what's going on. I will tell you it's incredibly dangerous when things get out into the press like that.”
Mr Trump has often publicly complained about leaks, particularly when news outlets publish information related to investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government – probes the President has referred to as a ‘witch hunt’.
Leaks are are generally defined as an intentional disclosure of secret information, often by an anonymous source whose goal is to make the information public.
“The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?,” the President tweeted in February.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last week that the Justice Department is considering stricter measures to prevent leaks.
Mr Trump has also suggested that when reporters don’t include the names of their sources in their articles, they are disseminating “fake news”.
“Whenever you see the words 'sources say' in the fake news media, and they don't mention names...it is very possible that those sources don't exist but are made up by fake news writers. #FakeNews is the enemy!” the President tweeted in May.
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