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The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Chico State's independent student newspaper

The Orion

Trump is creating distractions

Photo+credit%3A+Katia+Berg
Photo credit: Katia Berg

It’s a normal day when President Trump expresses his troubles and promotes his policies on both of his Twitter accounts. Except on March 4, Donald Trump went to a new level, claiming that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential election.

Despite the fact that Trump has no evidence to support his accusations, his actions affect the American people most of all.

While the media shifted to covering the alleged wiretapping claims, the White House got busy with the revamped GOP health care bill and the new budget. Along with wiretapping, the spying accusations were an important deterrent from more investigations into Trump’s communication with Russia.

But that’s nothing new. Trump is fantastic at shifting the conversation in his favor while he makes generalized statements that sound good but only serve as distractions.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed budget cut may not be as scandalous as wiretapping but it’s more important, especially when it gets a 31 percent cut. Same with the education cuts, which will affect college federal aid, including the Federal Pell Grant.

The government will reduce the Pell Grant funds by $3.9 million, according to USA Today.

Accusing Obama of spying may not have many consequences for Trump and company, but to the regular people going to work and school every day, it is a serious issue. The cuts in education and health care are the important topics that are being kicked to the curb because everyone is trying to disprove the notion’s that Trump already knows are false.

The American people need to be more informed about their health coverage and how students will pay for college. Rather than having a president who tweets about unimportant issues, Trump should be fighting for the best interest of all people.

It isn’t only on the president, as the people have fallen for his distraction about fake spying stories rather than fighting him on the topics that matter.

Trump’s officials have even tried to backtrack and convince the public his tweets were not intended to be taken literally.

Days after Trump’s initial claims White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, said “The president used the word wiretap in quotes to mean broadly surveillance and other activities,” according to the New York Times.

Evidence should have been found first before @POTUS took to Twitter to address his concerns. Without it, all his tweets are branded as fake news from the government.

The president should be using his Twitter to communicate to the people with transparency and honesty. If he wants the public to trust in his abilities as president then he needs to stop using Twitter as a reactionary weapon and start using it to inform the people on issues they really care about.

The claims of wiretapping to throw off the public are nothing more than a way to blind the American people from the important things that are happening in their country.

Susan Whaley can be reached at [email protected] or @TheOrion_News on Twitter.

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