President Donald Trump is coming under fire and being accused of leaking classified information when Trump retweeted the below Fox & Friends article, titled “U.S. spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to patrol boat.” The Fox & Friends article was published on August 7, and shared on Twitter on August 8, at 5:50 a.m. President Trump’s Twitter account shows that Trump retweeted the article on August 8, sometime in the morning after the Fox & Friends article was shared on Twitter via the Fox & Friends Twitter account.
According to CNN , U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed that the information contained in the Fox & Friends article that was shared to their Twitter account and retweeted by President Trump was classified information that was leaked. As a result of the leak of classified information via the Twitter accounts and the article, Google Trends reports that a surge in the terms “Trump classified” and “Trump classified information” has happened on Tuesday, along with the search terms “Trump tweets classified information” and “Trump retweets classified.” Haley noted that she could not discuss classified information and she called it “a shame” if the classified information appeared in the newspaper.
U.S. spy satellites detect North Korea moving anti-ship cruise missiles to patrol boat https://t.co/BPFXsLffgy
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 8, 2017
While Haley called it dangerous to have classified information going out via newspapers and via Twitter, the White House has not commented on the classified information. Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California called it alarming that President Trump would share classified information on Twitter with such casualness. The fact that classified information appears in the news does not make it declassified.
Others have called it terrifying that Trump would retweet information that is classified. The motive for President Trump retweeting the classified Fox & Friends report is not known, especially since President Trump did not include his own thoughts or viewpoint by quoting the tweet. Instead, it was a straight rewteet that appeared on Trump’s Twitter account, without extra text included.
Concerns about national security are being bandied about on Twitter as news about the retweet of classified information goes viral. Trump’s Twitter habits and retweets have been a growing concern since he became president.
[Featured Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]
