Whatcha doin’, Dahnald?

In my previous article I sarcastically included the following line:

Kumiko Oumae / Majorityrights.com, ‘What you should be looking for in Donald Trump’s address to the US Congress.’, 28 Feb 2017 (emphasis added):

[...] More crucially, it will be instructive to watch for how Donald Trump will address the accusations that he has not deterred supposed ‘anti-Semitic’ behaviour among his supporters. Trump may take this opportunity to respond by once again putting the Alt-Right under the bus, a move which again will come at no cost to himself, because the Alt-Right will still continue to support him after he does that.

[...]

At the very beginning of the speech, Donald Trump chose to do exactly that. He did that when he said:

US President Donald J. Trump, ‘Speech to Joint Session of Congress’, 01 Mar 2017 (emphasis added):

And citizens of America, tonight, as we were — as we mark the celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that still remains to be done.

Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.

That is a rather strange thing for him to say, given that at the time that he chose to say that, he would already have known about this investigation which was simultaneously taking place at the FBI:

Riverfront Times, ‘Juan Thompson, 31, Busted for JCC Bomb Threats; St. Louis Native Was Disgraced Journalist’, 03 Mar 2017 (emphasis added):

Disgraced former journalist Juan Thompson has been arrested on federal cyberstalking charges after the FBI traced multiple bomb threats against Jewish community centers and the Anti-Defamation League to the St. Louis native, authorities say.

Thompson, who was the subject of a Riverfront Times investigation last year, called in the threats as part of a bizarre scheme to frame an ex-girlfriend, according to the Justice Department.

“Today, we have charged Juan Thompson with allegedly stalking a former romantic interest by, among other things, making bomb threats in her name to Jewish Community Centers and to the Anti-Defamation League,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara said in a statement. “Threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race — whatever the motivation — are unacceptable, un-American, and criminal. We are committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who foment fear and hate through such criminal threats.”

Thompson, 31, was once a reporter for The Intercept, but he was fired after the New York City-based news site found he had been making up sources. Our investigation turned up even more journalistic problems dating back to his college days at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Thompson later briefly surfaced at an online news site, but was fired after someone there learned of his background. He has blamed racism for his difficulties and self-published a piece on Medium blasting The Intercept and “the white liberal media.”

More recently, Thompson launched a GoFundMe campaign, claiming he was running for St. Louis mayor. (He never filed the necessary paperwork.)

“This election is all about people power,” he wrote. “Because only with your voices and your votes and your power can we fight back against Trumpian fascism and socio-economic terrorism.” He raised just $25 of his $5,000 goal.

See our latest update: Before Bomb Threats, Juan Thompson Unraveled — and Terrorized an RFT Reporter

Also, check out the federal complaint.

Juan Thompson Complaint on Scribd

The Conclusion

So it was basically an African-American man who was perpetrating an elaborate hoax so as to frame his White liberal ex-girlfriend as an anti-Semite.

You couldn’t make it up.

But think about this. If the federal complaint was formally raised the morning after Donald Trump gave his speech to the joint session of congress, is it beyond possibility that Trump in fact knew exactly what was going on before he gave the speech?

He is the President of the United States. This is not campaign mode anymore. The FBI would have made him aware of the fact that these bomb-threats were likely to be coming from Juan Thompson and that the motive was not political.

Why did Trump not just say with certainty that he knew that the bomb threats against Jewish community centres had in fact been a hoax all along?

I think everyone knows the answer to that question, right?