President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at critical news coverage of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin by claiming that his critics only want to start a massive war with Russia.
"The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war," the president wrote. "They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin. We are doing MUCH better than any other country!"
The talking point that confronting Russia in any way would spark World War III has long been a Kremlin talking point. In fact, the day after Trump was elected, state-run Russian news site Sputnik ran an article claiming that Hillary Clinton would have sparked World War III if she had won.
The notion that Clinton would have start a massive global conflict gradually went from Russian media to Trump campaign surrogates during the 2016 campaign. When Trump ally Roger Stone appeared on Alex Jones' show to boast about Russia likely dropping dirt on Clinton, he pointed out Russian concerns about Clinton's purported war-mongering tendencies as a reason for releasing Clinton's hacked emails.
"The reason that the Russians are probably leaking this information is because they don't want a nuclear war either," Stone said on July 27, 2016. "[Hillary Clinton] is bent on a war that benefits her donors and the multinational corporations and the defense contractors