Donald Trump has apparently heard about the new, unverified allegations surrounding Russia and damaging information it allegedly has about him. If this morning is any indication, the president-elect isn’t pleased.Turning to Twitter this morning, Trump began by writing, “Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is ‘A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.’ Very unfair!” It’s worth noting that there’s no reason to believe the allegations were “paid for” by anyone; Trump actually misquoted the Kremlin; and I’m not sure it’s a great idea for Trump to cite Russia’s word in this particular controversy.The president-elect added, “Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Let’s pause to note that there’s ample evidence to the contrary. If he wants to substantiate his claims, however, he certainly has the option of releasing his tax returns — something Trump said he’d do, but hasn’t.But Trump wrapped up his tirade with an unexpected message:
“Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”
Americans have never had a president who asked whether we’re living in Nazi Germany, so I suppose this is history in the making.It’s an incredible thing for Trump to say, even by Trump standards. It’s unclear how familiar the president-elect is with the era, but the principal problem with Nazi Germany wasn’t the leaking of information from intelligence agencies.Indeed, it’s a safe bet the simmering conflict between Trump and U.S. intelligence professionals won’t improve now that the president-elect is accusing them of creating a Nazi-like environment.Finally, when Trump refers to the allegations as “one last shot” at him, what does that mean, exactly? Is there some reason to believe there won’t — or can’t — be additional leaks?
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."