Trump reacts to Tulsi Gabbard reveal: ‘Irrefutable proof of Obama coup’  

President Donald Trump is furious with former President Barack Obama, whom he is accusing of participating in a “coup” against him in 2016. Trump is referring of course to recent disclosures from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has released documents showing it was Obama who encouraged intelligence officials to reach stronger conclusions about Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.  

According to Gabbard, the intelligence community was well aware that Russia did not hack voting machines, nor did the country have much impact on the outcome, but Trump’s enemies in the Democratic Party wanted to paint him as a Russian collaborator, and so they overreached. The media, of course, followed suit, publishing headline after headline suggesting that Trump was a Russian stooge. 

Here is President Trump reacting to the latest news:  

“We found absolute — this isn’t like evidence, this is like proof, irrefutable proof, that Obama was seditious. That Obama was trying to lead a coup. And it was with Hillary Clinton and with all these other people, but Obama headed it up. And, you know, I get a kick when I hear everyone talks about people I never even heard of. […] It was Obama, he headed it up. And it says so right in the papers.” 

These allegations are extremely serious. Now, it’s far too premature to throw around the word treason; in fact, I don’t like when anybody, Democrat or Republican, starts accusing their opponents of treason. This reads less like treason to me and more like political weaponization of national intelligence for partisan purposes, which has become a recurring theme.  

Make no mistake: There was an effort to de-legitimize Trump’s election to the presidency, and the argument was made by mainstream media mouthpieces leveraging the expertise of deep-state spymasters. Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter both said that Trump was an illegitimate president, in response to media reporting on Russia’s meddling. This was the original “stolen election” theory, and it’s only been overshadowed because Trump’s false contention that the 2016 election was stolen has subsequently received much more media coverage and much more vigorous pushback. 

Let me be perfectly clear: Trump should have never claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But he’s in good company: Look at the Democrats who said the same thing about 2016! And their main theory backing that up was Russian malfeasance — something intelligence officials privately discounted, until they went to the White House and had a chat with outgoing President Barack Obama. 

Robbie Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.