After this week I’ve come to a conclusion. Donald Trump is a time bomb and the fuse is already lit.
Let’s just look at things briefly from the perspective of Donald-World shall we? He believes — or strongly claims to believe — that the entire “Russia” thing is a sour grapes hoax by Democrats over losing the election. That he has “no ties” to Russia, hasn’t called there in years, has no “deals” in Russia and doesn’t own any property or loans from there — except for a “few items” his lawyers say — etc, yadda yadda.
It doesn’t matter that his former National Security Advisor took $37,000 from the Kremlin without prior authorization, didn’t disclose it on his SF86 Security clearance renewal forms, did the same thing with $530,000 from Turkey then illegal discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Kislyak and forgot/lied about it to everyone including the FBI and the Vice President. It doesn’t matter that Trump was warned not to hire Flynn and did it anyway without fully vetting him.
It doesn’t matter that Carter Page was being recruited as an asset by Russian spies — twice — or that Paul Manafort has a chief assistant with a background from Russian intelligence, that Russian mobsters rented entire floors in Tromp Tower to run gambling and money laundering rings, that Russian Oligarchs bought $98 Million worth of property from Trump in South Florida including one Russian Billionaire who paid $60 Million over market price for one Trump owned mansion, that Trump pal Roger Stone sent direct messages to Guccifer 2.0 and then pre-announced that Podesta would be hacked before it happened, that Trump surrogate Rudy Guliani pre-announced the Comey letter to congress before that happened, that Trump surrogate Jeff Sessions lied under oath about meeting Kislyak twice, that Trump used to have Russian mobster and FBI informant Felix Sater on his payroll, that Donald Jr. said “we get a lot of money from Russia” and Eric Trump said many of their Golf courses were bought using money from Russian investors. It doesn’t matter that the NYT's report of repeated contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence which now Acting FBI Director McCabe once claimed were “bullshit” has now been specifically confirmed by James Clapper, or that Trump himself called for Russia to hack Hillary’s email server and repeatedly used false RT/Sputnik News talking points during his campaign as if he himself were a propaganda agent for the Kremlin.
He says that’s not a problem, those are all just unlucky coincidences not “collusion” and that it’s all just “fake news.”
But his real problem is that none of these facts are going away and no matter who he fires or how loudly he rages at the TV machine — none of it is going to change.
It took less than 24 hours for his bogus excuses for firing James Comey to fall apart like a wet house of cards.
… [Trump] wanted to talk with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his trusted confidant, and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, to whom Comey reported directly. Trump summoned the two of them to the White House for a meeting, according to a person close to the White House.
The president already had decided to fire Comey, according to this person. But in the meeting, several White House officials said Trump gave Sessions and Rosenstein a directive: to explain in writing the case against Comey.
Rosenstein, In reaction to the claim that firing Comey was his idea to start with, threatened to quit.
But in contrast to the White House’s assertion that Rosenstein was the catalyst for Comey’s ouster, the Washington Post reports that Trump met with Sessions and Rosenstein on Monday and directed this attorney general and deputy attorney general to make a case against Comey for him.
According to the Post, when the White House narrative on Tuesday suggested Rosenstein was the impetus behind the president’s move, Rosenstein threatened to quit. Wednesday, the administration altered its timeline of Trump’s decision, but continued to cite Rosenstein’s role in Comey’s dismissal.
The truth is that Trump had been raging about Comey for weeks as CNN’s John King reported — he was “White Hot” about Comey saying he was “slightly nauseous” about the idea that his letter to congress about the Abedine emails may have changed the election.
A longtime friend who talked to the President over the weekend described him as "white hot," a mood that set the table for Comey's firing. Trump did not seek a wide range of viewpoints on Comey, several people familiar with the matter told CNN, unlike his approach on many difficult choices.
...
Several people familiar with the decision say the President grew increasingly frustrated at Comey after his congressional hearing last Wednesday when he testified that he was "mildly nauseous" over the idea that he helped sway the election. Even the health care victory in the House one day later couldn't take his mind off Comey, two people close to Trump said.
"He wouldn't hear it (that he should be encouraged)," the friend said. "It's Russia. Russia. Trump and Russia." The President complained, with expletives, about Comey's "mildly nauseous" answer and said his answer when pressed on leaks convinced the President he was far less concerned about the leaks than Trump thought he should be.
So he didn’t really fire Comey just to halt the Russia investigation, he fired him because he didn’t buy into and support Trump’s fantasies about leaks and “Obama wiretapping Trump Tower” and all that.
He wasn’t getting his delusions confirmed.
He pretty much confirmed this with Lester Holt.
“Look, he’s a grandstander, a showboat,” Trump said of Comey. “The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. Everybody knows that.”
Additionally, Trump said that he would have fired Comey from his post regardless of what the U.S. Department of Justice recommended — a total contradiction from what the White House has said ever since Comey’s dismissal on Tuesday.
Yeah, no — the now Acting FBI Director says that’s crap.
“The President, over the last several months, lost confidence in Director Comey,” Sanders said during the daily White House briefing. “The DOJ lost confidence in Director Comey. Bipartisan members of Congress made it clear that they had lost confidence in Director Comey. And most importantly, the rank-and-file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.”
McCabe pushed back repeatedly. He said that while the organization was large and people had many different opinions, it was a “fiercely independent group.” He said “morale has always been good,” though he acknowledged some people within the FBI were frustrated with Comey’s recommendation against charging Hillary Clinton with criminal actions over her handling of emails while secretary of state.
This wasn’t about “morale” at the FBI, or anything Rod Rosenstein wrote, this was just Trump raging in frustration with reality. Just think about the series of insane interviews that Trump gave not that long ago to people like CBS’s John Dickerson.
President Donald Trump grew visibly angry and walked away from an interview with CBS News reporter John Dickerson after Dickerson pressed him for proof that former President Barack Obama had illegally wiretapped Trump Tower.
The wiretapping claims came up when Dickerson asked Trump about his relationship with former President Barack Obama, whom he had accused of conducting unlawful surveillance of him during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“He was very nice to me, but after that, we’ve had some difficulties,” said Trump. “So it doesn’t matter. You know, words are less important to me than deeds, and you saw what happened with surveillance.”
Dickerson then asked Trump for evidence that Obama had illegally wiretapped him, but Trump wouldn’t offer any — while insisting that “our side has been proven very strongly.”
Just last week Joe Scarborough was railing about how Trump was sounding “rambling and incoherent” because — he was.
During his interview with Zito, the president made historically illiterate claims about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War, as he said that Jackson was “very angry” about the war despite the fact that he died 16 years before it started.
The president also angrily walked out of his interview with Dickerson after the reporter pressed him for evidence to back up his unproven claim that former President Barack Obama had illegally wiretapped him.
Taking stock of both interviews, Scarborough said that his bogus claims about the Civil War and his “rambling” to John Dickerson were “equally concerning.”
“His speech is even more rambling and incoherent than before,” Scarborough said. “It is getting worse.”
Dead Andrew Jackson could have stopped the Civil War. By what, scowling more? Or perhaps trying to buy all the slaves from the south the way the Lincoln tried? What makes him think Jackson would have succeeded when Lincoln failed?
On top of that fantasy he still thinks he’s been proven correct about the wiretapping even though James Comey testified it didn’t happen, as did James Clapper, and General Michael Haden, and GCHQ. Nobody who would actually have the ability to know has confirmed this, yet Trump continues on — and hence he rages at the TV whenever someone tells the truth.
President Donald Trump would regularly scream at the television when reports of investigations into his links with Russia appeared on television, according to aides.
In the week before he stunned Washington by firing FBI Director James Comey, he repeatedly asked his inner circle why the Russia story wouldn't go away, it is claimed.
The President was furious with Comey for telling the Senate that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign, and his anger grew when Comey failed to support his allegation that Barack Obama had tapped his phones.
Firing Comey didn’t change this. In fact, it made it worse as even Jason Chaffetz has now called for the DOJ Inspector General to investigate Comey’s firing.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is calling for the Justice Department's inspector general to look into the circumstances surrounding President Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
"Previously I asked Inspector General Horowitz to review the FBI’s actions in advance of the 2016 election," Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in a statement Wednesday.
"Today I sent a letter urging IG Horowitz to expand the scope of his review to include the decision to fire Director Comey. I look forward to receiving the IG’s findings."
Subpoenas from the DOJ and Senate Intelligence committees went out this week for information on Michael Flynn’s financial transactions, so the “Russia thing” is not about to just “disappear.”
In addition to that members of the FBI are reacting as if Trump declared War on Them.
A new Washington Post article offers an intimate look into the immediate before and after of President Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, and many of the revelations from the 30-odd officials within the White House and intelligence communities who spoke on conditions of anonymity are explosive.
According to one anonymous intelligence official, Trump “essentially declared war on a lot of people at the FBI. I think there will be a concerted effort to respond over time in kind.”
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It also raised another, perhaps more serious, question: “Why had Trump discussed the Russia probe with the FBI director three times, as he claimed in his letter dismissing Comey, which could have been a violation of Justice Department policies that ongoing investigations generally are not to be discussed with White House officials?”
And then we get the Loyalty pledge — which by itself is potentially obstruction of justice — followed by the Audio Tape threat. The wheels have fallen off this wagon totally.
His increasing delusions, rash decisions and acting out have made his own problems demonstrably worse than they might have been.
It’s possible, albeit unlikely if one is to give credence to reports via GCHQ that TrumpCo-Russia collusion has been confirmed via signal intercepts, that at a certain point most of this Russia stuff actually might have blown over. Congress and the FBI may never get access to these classified intercepts, particularly since they come from overseas intel agencies. The closest it might ever get to Trump is Michael Flynn who if he doesn’t get immunity is potentially at risk for multiple felonies from violating the Hatch Act to lying to the FBI and falsifying his security clearance application.
That might have been all that was going to happen.
But clearly what has been happening instead and will continue to happen is Trump blowing his stack about it and then doing something stupid in response which will — like Comey’s firing, and then the pledges and the threats — only make it worse.
Congress and the FBI might never find the perfect smoking gun of collusion or financial ties between the Kremlin and Trump — but long before they finally give up Trump is going to inflict his own, potentially politically fatal, self-inflicted wound to himself, his administration, and ultimately America. He’s not taking the hint folks, he’s not getting better, he’s getting worse day by day.
The fuse is lit. It’s only a matter of time before the bomb goes off.
And after that what happens to the shambles he’s left of our Democracy in the aftermath?