Trump goes off on Dems spied on his campaign, subvert will of people, lied & got caught red-handed

President Trump delivered a six-minute, unrestrained indictment of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, James Clapper, and their team as the architects of what he called a treasonous plan to steal the 2016 election — and a multi-year plot to undermine his first presidency. “Stone cold … the leader of the gang was President Obama Barack Hussein Obama … He’s guilty. It’s there. He’s guilty. This was treason.” Trump named the Steele Dossier as “the fake news dossier” that Clinton and the Democrats paid $12 million for, commissioned from Christopher Steele, and attempted — unsuccessfully — to plant with the press before the 2016 election. “The press refused. To write it before the election they refused to put it in. The Steele report was a disaster. All lies. All fabrication. All admitted and admitted fraud.” Trump credited the New York Times — only for this one moment — for declining to run the dossier pre-election: “They said this is bullshit. We can’t put this in.” He confirmed DNI Gabbard has “thousands of additional documents coming."

"Stone Cold … the Leader of the Gang”

Trump opened with the specific characterization. “Stone cold and it was President Obama and lots of people all over the place. It was them too But the leader of the gang was President Obama Barack Hussein Obama have you heard of him except for the fact that he gets shielded by the press for his entire life.”

“Leader of the gang” is the mob-framing language. Trump is treating the Russia-collusion manufacturing operation as organized criminal conspiracy with Obama as the boss. “Have you heard of him” is sarcastic — Obama is one of the most covered political figures in American history — but Trump’s point is that the shielding has prevented scrutiny that other political figures have faced.

“Gets shielded by the press for his entire life” — Trump’s characterization of the media posture toward Obama. Whether that shielding, if real, is a separate question from whether Obama led the Russia-collusion manufacturing operation. Trump is linking both: Obama acted with protection, so his accountability has never arrived.

”Look, He’s Guilty”

“Look, he’s guilty. It’s there. He’s guilty. This was treason.”

Trump’s declarative triad. “He’s guilty” — said twice. “This was treason.” Those are not legal accusations Trump is submitting to a grand jury. They are political characterizations delivered to reporters. Whether the Justice Department pursues prosecution is the operational question. Whether Trump believes it does not depend on prosecution.

“Every word you can think of they tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined even in other countries. You’ve seen some pretty rough countries This man is seeing some pretty rough countries But you’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Even in other countries” — Trump is arguing the sophistication and scale of the manufactured-intelligence operation exceeds what rough-country authoritarian regimes have attempted against their opposition candidates. That framing is the strongest version of the corruption claim.

”Thousands of Additional Documents Coming”

“We have all of the documents and from what Tulsi told me She’s got thousands of additional documents coming so President Obama it was his concept his idea, but he also got it from Crooked Hillary Clinton.”

“Thousands of additional documents coming” — that is Trump confirming what Gabbard has previewed. The document release so far has been the opening. More is coming. Each batch presumably will extend the paper trail into more specific detail.

“Obama it was his concept his idea, but he also got it from Crooked Hillary Clinton.” Trump is assigning shared responsibility. Obama directed it, but the concept — the idea of manufacturing a Russia-collusion narrative — came, in Trump’s framing, from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

The Steele Dossier

“Crooked is a three dollar bill Hillary Clinton and her group the Democrats spent 12 million dollars to Christopher Steele To write up a report that was a total fake report took two years to figure that out But it came out that it was a total fake report.”

$12 million to Christopher Steele, the British former MI6 officer who compiled the Steele Dossier. The actual amount the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Steele through Fusion GPS was several million dollars — not $12 million — but Trump’s round number captures the order of magnitude and the essence of the transaction.

“Took two years to figure that out But it came out that it was a total fake report. It was made up fiction.”

Two years to figure out the dossier was substantially fabricated is roughly accurate. The dossier’s most sensational claims — the pee tape allegations, the specific meetings alleged to have occurred — have been refuted or discredited over time through FBI investigative work, court filings, and subsequent reporting.

“All lies. All fabrication. All admitted and admitted fraud.”

Trump’s characterization is maximalist. “All admitted” is overly strong — some claims in the dossier have not been directly admitted as fabrications by specific individuals. But the core Steele-Dossier discreditation — that it was commissioned research that produced low-reliability claims which were then handled in ways that violated investigative norms — is well documented.

”The Press Refused”

“She paid 12 million dollars and the Democrats for that report to a wise guy named Christopher Steele He wrote a phony report and they wanted to get that report in before the election And I’ll tell you what I talk about all the time the fake news how bad it is But in this case They wouldn’t do it they saw it they read it and they said we don’t believe it.”

This is the most unusual moment in the six-minute monologue. Trump is crediting the press — specifically the New York Times and others — for not running the Steele Dossier before the 2016 election.

“And it was only after Substantially like a month and a half after the election that it got printed and it was a big wisp It was just like a bang of nothing because the election had ended.”

That is accurate. BuzzFeed published the Steele Dossier in January 2017, after Trump had already won the election. If the dossier had been published pre-election — as the Clinton campaign and Steele had apparently hoped — the political consequences would have been different. The post-election publication reduced the dossier’s immediate electoral impact.

”I Respect the Times” (Briefly)

Trump’s grudging credit to the New York Times. “If that report had gotten Published by the New York Times or somebody and I respect the Times for maybe only this because they’re crooked as you can be They’re a terrible paper a crooked corrupt paper, but for this one moment. They said this is Bullshit we can’t put this in.”

“I respect the Times for maybe only this” — the qualifier is almost comic. Trump’s broader animosity toward the New York Times is well-documented. But for this specific decision — declining to publish the Steele Dossier before the 2016 election without independent verification — Trump is acknowledging that the Times editorial judgment was correct.

“And neither could any other Wall Street journals a lousy paper very very dishonest paper As you see I’m suing them for a lot of money because they do things very badly It’s got a nice name, but it’s really in my opinion. It’s a terrible paper. It can be corrupt.”

The Wall Street Journal is one of the publications Trump is suing. But he is crediting the WSJ too for declining to publish the dossier pre-election. Credit for editorial restraint is not a permanent immunity — Trump is suing them for other reasons — but for this one point, the restraint is acknowledged.

”Two and a Half Months”

“But just so you know they didn’t take the steel report Was the dossier remember the famous dossier I call it the fake news dossier the news wouldn’t publish it I’m amazed they had two and a half months. It was finished two and a half months that was supposed to be what was going to happen and It got published a couple of months after the election and frankly nobody cared too much about it.”

Two and a half months between dossier completion and the election. That is a long window. Publication during that window would have landed before votes were cast. The Clinton campaign’s expectation, per Trump’s framing, was that the dossier would become the defining late-campaign story against Trump. It did not, because the press declined to publish.

”We Caught Hillary Clinton. We Caught Barack Hussein Obama”

Trump’s closing was the summary indictment. “But that was a big thing. No, no, we caught Hillary Clinton. We caught Barack Hussein Obama They’re the ones and then you have many many people under them Susan Rice.”

Susan Rice — Obama’s National Security Advisor — is named as a participant. Rice’s role in the alleged operation, per subsequent reporting, included unmasking requests and coordination of the transition-era intelligence posture that would become the foundation of the Russia-collusion narrative.

“They’re all there The names are all there and I guess they figured they’re gonna put this in classified information and nobody will ever see it again But it doesn’t work that way. It’s the most unbelievable thing. I think I’ve ever read.”

“Put this in classified information and nobody will ever see it again” is Trump’s characterization of the operational strategy. Classify the documentation. Bury the evidence. Count on institutional inertia to ensure the material never surfaces.

Gabbard’s declassification campaign is explicitly aimed at preventing that strategy from succeeding. The documents are being released publicly, in batches, with more “thousands” coming.

”Stop Talking About Nonsense”

Trump’s closing to the press pool. “So you want to take a look at that and Stop talking about nonsense because this is big stuff never has a thing like this happened in the history of our country.”

“Never has a thing like this happened in the history of our country.” That is Trump’s historical framing. American political history includes many controversies — Watergate, Iran-Contra, the 2020 election disputes — but none, in Trump’s framing, match the scale of what the Obama-Clinton operation allegedly did. An outgoing sitting president, per the allegations, orchestrated intelligence-community manufacturing to subvert the incoming elected president.

Whether historians will accept that framing is the question the next few years of document releases, congressional investigations, and possible prosecutions will produce answers to.

Key Takeaways

• Trump named the “leader of the gang”: “The leader of the gang was President Obama Barack Hussein Obama … Look, he’s guilty. It’s there. He’s guilty. This was treason.”
• Trump assigned the Steele Dossier cost: “$12 million to Christopher Steele … She paid 12 million dollars and the Democrats for that report to a wise guy named Christopher Steele.”
• Trump credited the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for declining to publish the dossier pre-election: “They said this is bullshit. We can’t put this in” — calling it the one moment he respects the Times for.
• Trump named Susan Rice among “many many people under them” — with additional names “all there” in the document trail — “They figured they’re gonna put this in classified information and nobody will ever see it again But it doesn’t work that way.”
• Trump confirmed Gabbard has “thousands of additional documents coming” to extend the document release campaign.