Trump’s quibble
Trump’s complaint said, “Once again, the Fake News Media created a deliberately misleading headline about five tanker planes that were allegedly shot down at an air base in Saudi Arabia, and had no further use. In fact, the base was attacked a few days earlier, but the planes were not ‘hit’ or ‘destroyed.'” Four of the five suffered virtually no damage, and have already returned to service. There is more damage, but there will be more in the air. No one was destroyed, or even close to it, as the fake news headlines said.”
The only specific news outlets mentioned in Trump’s post were The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, but he was referring to a Wall Street Journal article. Even if Trump’s version of events is true, his complaint would not meet the legal standard to prove fraud or news distortion, or even prove that the Journal did anything wrong. Trump claims the planes were not “hit”, but he says four of the five suffered “virtually no damage”, which appears to imply that all five were hit and suffered some damage.
Trump’s post appears to accuse the Journal of falsely reporting that the planes were destroyed and would not be used again. But the Journal article makes it clear that the planes were only damaged, not destroyed, and will be repaired. It said:
Five US Air Force planes refueling at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Airport have collided with the ground and were damaged, according to two US officials.
Officials said the tankers were attacked during an Iranian missile attack on a Saudi base in recent days. US Central Command declined to comment. The tankers were damaged but not completely destroyed and were being repaired, one of the officials said. No one was killed in the attacks.
The Journal article was published Friday and Trump released his complaint on Truth Social Saturday morning. The Journal article was updated Saturday afternoon to include a quote from Trump’s Truth Social post. As far as we can tell, the article never claimed that any of the five tanker planes were destroyed. A Reuters article on Friday citing the WSJ report also used the phrases “killed and damaged” and “not completely destroyed”, undermining Trump’s claim of misreporting.
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