A Washington Post report claiming President Donald Trump is ramping up transfers to Guantanamo Bay prison is "fake news," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"This story is fake news. Not happening," Leavitt said in a post on X.
The Post report, published Wednesday, said the Trump administration was preparing to send thousands of foreigners to the detention facility, including people from France, Britain, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Haiti, and Italy.
The Post cited U.S. officials "familiar with the matter" and documents with those plans.
Politico on Tuesday published a similar report.
State Department officials who deal with Europe told Politico they were trying to persuade the White House to abort the plan.
"The message is to shock and horrify people, to upset people," one State Department official familiar with the situation told the news outlet. "But we're allies."
Set up to house foreign suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay came to symbolize the excesses of the U.S. "war on terror" because of harsh interrogation methods critics said amounted to torture.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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