The Washington Post has declared that President Donald Trump is “wrong” to claim that former President Barack Obama is building a “wall” around his Washington, DC, home — because Obama only added a fence to a wall.
Trump made the claim from the White House on December 30, where he made a point of working through the Christmas and New Year holidays — aside from a surprise visit to Iraq — while Democrats (and journalists) were vacationing far from the capital.
The president is holding out for $5 billion funding for a border wall, or steel-slat barrier, from Congress. Democrats have refused to provide the votes, causing a partial government shutdown.
In response, Trump has been highlighting Democrats’ past and present support for other kinds of barriers — including the one around Barack and Michelle Obama’s new home to provide personal security.
He tweeted:
President and Mrs. Obama built/has a ten foot Wall around their D.C. mansion/compound. I agree, totally necessary for their safety and security. The U.S. needs the same thing, slightly larger version!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2018
The Post, which claims that President Trump has made nearly 8,000 “false or misleading” claims since taking office, objected Monday: “Trump claims there’s a 10-foot wall around the Obamas’ D.C. home. He is wrong.”
But the article, Michael Brice-Saddler, actually admits that the Obamas a) have a wall; b) have added to that wall, albeit by building a fence; c) have a home whose security barrier has been described as a “wall” by other media.
Brice-Saddler cites the Post‘s fact-checker, which wrote: “The Obamas added security fencing to an enlarged retaining wall in front for the needs of the Secret Service but there is not a ten-foot wall around the house; the front steps are open to the sidewalk. Chain link fencing, but no wall, was added to the back.”
The fact-checker also “fact-checked” the joke about a “slightly larger version” at the end of Trump’s tweet: “While Trump says the border wall would be a ‘slightly larger version’ of the alleged Obama wall, he has previously described his proposed wall as 1,000 miles long, made of precast concrete slabs, rising 35 to 40 feet in the air.”
Apparently, even true statements can be listed as “false or misleading” by the Post, provided they were made by President Donald Trump.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Photo: file
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