Senior Trump officials adopt their boss’s combative fact-checking tactics on social media

President Donald Trump is no stranger to taking on the so-called fake news directly on social media. But senior officials in his second administration are increasingly adopting their boss’s robust real-time fact-checking tactics.

When Politico reported last week that the White House was considering lifting sanctions on Russian energy assets as part of its talks to end the war in Ukraine, top Trump administration officials sprang into action on X.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded the outlet retract the “piece of fiction” less than two hours after its publication. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, posted later that evening that there was “not even a kernel of truth to this story” and called the report “fake crap.”

“There isn't even a kernel of truth to this story – Politico was played by their "sources" yet again. It's embarrassing that they print this type of fake crap.”