The rewards of embracing Donald Trump, even if you avoid getting chicken grease on your jacket, are fleeting.
Few Republicans were quicker to embrace President Trump’s campaign last year than Jeff Sessions, and his reward was one of the most prestigious jobs in America. But more than four months into his presidency, Mr. Trump has grown sour on Mr. Sessions, now his attorney general, blaming him for various troubles that have plagued the White House.
That ‘sourness’ was on full display Monday morning as Donald Trump addressed the Justice Department as if it were a foreign government—one that didn’t agree with Trump on how to handle his Muslim ban.
That was just one Tweet in a series where Trump shared what the Justice Department “should” do, which is apparently something he didn’t bother to pass along to Jefferson Sessions via a route other than a giant public rebuke.
In private, the president’s exasperation has been even sharper. He has intermittently fumed for months over Mr. Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election, according to people close to Mr. Trump who insisted on anonymity to describe internal conversations. In Mr. Trump’s view, they said, it was that recusal that eventually led to the appointment of a special counsel who took over the investigation.
Among Trump’s superpowers is the ability to turn his biggest supporters into scapegoats and a willingness to sacrifice anyone if he feels it can give him a moments’ respite. Guess what, Jeff ...
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A lot of presidents have become frustrated with their Justice Departments. After all, it is the place where the ability of the Executive rubs up against limitations set by the Judicial branch. That the Attorney General isn’t always able to win the day, or to make things move as quickly as the president might like, is a constant source of friction. But Trump’s public attacks seem to both undercut Justice and bring out (again) the big Pontius Pilate washing-my-hands-of-this bowl.
“They wholly undercut the idea that there is some rational process behind the president’s decisions,” said Walter E. Dellinger, who served as acting solicitor general under Mr. Clinton. “I believe it is unprecedented for a president to publicly chastise his own Justice Department.”
Trump’s defenders argued that he has reason to be upset with Sessions. After all, Sessions talked Trump into going with a second version of the Muslim ban, under the assumption it would fare better with courts than the original. Now Trump wants to blame Sessions for that failure.
“He’s unhappy when the results don’t come in,” Mr. Rivkin said. “I’m sure he was convinced to try the second version, and the second iteration did not do better than the first iteration, so the lawyers in his book did not do a good job. It’s understandable for a businessman.”
But the primary reason the Muslim ban failed wasn’t how Trump’s lawyers wrote it—it’s how Trump’s own mouth promoted it. That was a factor also on big, biglier, bigliest display on Monday.
Donald Trump may favor the Dick the Butcher principle, but he really shouldn’t worry about it. Right now at the Justice Department, every lawyer has to be regretting their choice of career.
The one thing stopping Trump from canning Sessions is how using his Apprentice catchphrase worked out last time.
Mr. Trump is said to be aware that firing people now, on the heels of dismissing James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, would be risky. He has invested care and meticulous attention to the next choice of an F.B.I. director in part because he will not have the option of firing another one. The same goes for Mr. Sessions, these people said.
“Invested care and meticulous attention” here translates to “refused to consider anyone who wouldn’t take a blood oath to protect Trump above all things.”