With President Trump always eager to point out new varieties of fake news, the Associated Press, the nation’s largest single source of news content, has lobbed a slow softball over the Oval Office plate for him. And it has done so in a way that is utterly suited for hilarious mockery.

Which already is underway on Twitter. (Retweeting with a comment is the easy approach).

Hats off to Asche Schow of the Daily Wire for catching an breathless report on AP projecting doom for the POTUS they love to hate.

How many layers removed can a source be before the entire report starts to look absurd?

The Associated Press seems to have pushed the limits in an article published Friday morning. Here’s the lede:

A senior Justice Department lawyer says a former British spy told him at a breakfast meeting two years ago that Russian intelligence believed it had Donald Trump “over a barrel,” according to multiple people familiar with the encounter.

So, sources say a DOJ lawyer said a former British spy told him that Russian intelligence told him it had the president “over a barrel” during the 2016 elections. Got that?

It’s already resembling the party game called “Telephone” where a message is whispered from one ear to another, and after several iterations  becomes hopelessly and often humorously garbled.

But, the levels of separation between source and the publication of information is more degrees of separation:

I count five-times removed from the original source, but it was pointed out to me on Twitter that it is even more removed than that. We have the “Russian intelligence,” Christopher Steele (former British spy), Bruce Ohr (Former DOJ official), DOJ lawyers, lawmakers, “sources,” and the Associated Press.

Asche is not alone in mockery. And Sean Davis of the Federalist puts this nonsense in perspective just perfectly:

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw a Russian intelligence agent talking about Trump at 31 Flavors last night. https://t.co/8uYLsEE0m8

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 31, 2018

Respectfully, Mr. President, please retweet Sean Davis’s tweet with a few choice words of your own and make this an instance  Sunday Schadenfreude the AP will never forget.