Trump: Obama Wiretapped My Phones - 'A NEW LOW'

Just days after pundits hailed President Trump for his "presidential" tone in a speech to Congress, he spent part of Saturday morning bashing out a series of tweets, bizarre even by his unconventional communication standards, accusing his predecessor, Barack Obama, of ordering the wiretapping of phones at Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.

Trump offered no proof of the allegations. If it's true that "This is "Nixon/Watergate" — as Trump tweeted before calling the former president a, "Bad (or sick) guy!" — the wiretap would have required a warrant issued by a federal judge convinced that there was probable cause to believe that Trump had committed a serious crime or was an agent of a foreign power.

Trump offered no hints of whether his tweets were prompted by information from the courts, U.S. intelligence agents, other sources or nobody at all.

A spokesman for Obama, Kevin Lewis, issued a statement dismissing the claims. “A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” he said. “As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

It has long been Trump's practice to stir up new controversies when he hits a particularly bad news cycle and controversy, such as the continuing questions about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Russia. The tweets also have an impact on what the media is covering. The Washington Post published a story Friday, based on a memo from the administration that a reporter obtained, that spelled out the president's desire for steep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the country's most important climate science agencies.

Given that independent scientists have warned that such cuts would compromise weather warnings for tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards, not to mention slowing study of climate change, Saturday morning news shows could have been expected to cover the story.

Trump, though, became the story of the day.

If his allegations were a way to draw attention away from Sessions, the investigation of his campaign's dealings with Russia or cuts to funding to study climate change, Trump's decision to make such a claim against Obama, in a tweet and without offering any proof, was both remarkable for how he shared it and puzzling given the content.

The new president has shown a propensity for weaponizing Twitter and routinely makes demonstrably false statements with a brashness that his supporters love and his detractors seem to have accepted as merely obnoxious. Charging that a sitting president used wiretaps for political gain, though, elevates his tweets to an entirely new level, likely ensuring multiple investigations that will keep public focus on Trump's Russian ties and guaranteeing his most incendiary tweet to date will have consequences, whatever truth or lies eventually are uncovered.

Ben Rhodes, a former top national security aide to Obama, said in a Twitter message directed at Trump on Saturday that “no president can order a wiretap” and added, “Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you.”

Speculation swirled that Trump was basing his accusations on an article on the Breitbart News site or the words of conservative radio host Mark Levin. Both have promoted the idea that Obama and his administration used “police state” tactics last fall to monitor the Trump team.

In an article under the headline, "Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama’s ‘Silent Coup’ vs. Trump," Breitbart reporter Joel B. Pollak paraphrased Levin making the case that the reports of Russian interference in the presidential election were conspiracy theories and that investigators were looking at the wrong guy.

Obama’s actions, rather than Trump's Russian ties , should be the target of congressional investigation, Pollak wrote, paraphrasing Levin.

In one of five Obama-bashing tweets, which Trump began sending at 6:35 Saturday morning, he called Obama's alleged actions "A NEW LOW"

Trump added that he thought Obama could face legal action, saying "I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones."

Apparently through with Obama after about a half-hour of tweeting, Trump had nothing more to say on Twitter about any orchestrated Nixonian plot against him.

Instead, about an hour later, it occurred to him to renew his feud with actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who now hosts a new version of “Celebrity Apprentice." Trump, who remains an executive producer of the show, repeatedly mocked the Arnold's ratings after his debut in January. Giving a hint as to why Trump would root against his own show, he pointed out in a tweet that Schwarzenegger had voted for John Kasich in the Republican primary.

Trump's final appearance on the show, in 2015, attracted 6.1 million viewers compared to the 3.5 Schwarzenegger drew in February for his final show. (Trump's ratings had been plummeting from a high of 21 million viewers for years,)

Schwarzenegger announced on Friday that he would be leaving the show because it carried too much baggage. As for the lousy ratings, he blames Trump.

He told Empire, “With Trump being involved in the show, people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now, and I think this show got caught up in all that division."

Trump had his own take.

He tweeted the Arnold had been fired.

It didn't take long for Schwarzenegger to respond.

Photo Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images