POTEMKIN PLAUDITS:

But Trump's seemingly warm reception might have been somewhat stage-managed, according to various accounts. The Washington Post's longtime CIA watcher, Greg Miller, tweeted Saturday that the audience was "a self-selected bunch: CIA employees who signed up to come in on a Saturday to see the new POTUS. Mostly Trump voters." A pool reporter selected to witness the closed event indicated "the cheering and clapping was not from the CIA staffers but people who accompanied Trump," according to The Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler. He later clarified on Twitter that it was "unclear who the people on the side were. But the folks in the front apparently did not react until the end."

A different pool reporter wrote that Trump initally received an enthusiastic response from the 400 attendees, but as his remarks "strayed...the cheering was coming primarily from stage right...where the rank and file employees were seated. The senior staff, seated directly in front of POTUS, was noticeably far more subdued."

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