Trump Discussed Nuclear Arms Control and Other Matters with Putin, Not Fake News

July 30, 2020 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Axios taped on July 28, to be aired on Aug. 3 on HBO, President Donald Trump reported that he discussed nuclear proliferation with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they talked on July 23. Trump made clear that he did not confront Putin on the allegation that Russian military intelligence paid bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “I have never discussed it with him,” he said. “That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that’s an issue that many people said was fake news.”

Not surprisingly, the corporate mass media went bonkers over the Axios report with dozens of news stories all headlined with some variation of “Trump Admits Not Confronting Putin on Bounties To Kill U.S. Troops.” The underlying assumption of all of these stories is that the June 26 New York Times article that began this latest coup attempt was true without question, despite not presenting any evidence and being anonymously sourced.