Jeff Sessions, some long time ago, gave Donald Trump a signed resignation letter, which Trump used today.
Trump has been irritated at Sessions since Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. Sessions was a member of Trump’s campaign and has connections to the cast of thousands suspected to be involved in some way with Russian influence in that campaign. That has eaten at Trump, who believes that the Attorney General is the President’s consigliere. Trump has complained openly about this.
He has also nagged and browbeaten Sessions in public, but Sessions rode out those humiliations.
Trump has been angry about the Russia investigation (“Witch Hunt!”) since it began. He seems to see his interactions with Russia, or to want us to see those interactions, as normal business practice. Someone says that they have dirt on your campaign opponent? Who wouldn’t meet with them, even if foreign contributions to campaigns are illegal?
Matthew Whitaker, who will be acting Attorney General until a new one is appointed by the President, has publicly stated his opposition to the Mueller investigation and even to Marbury v. Madison, the early Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review.
There is a sense in which all of this is predictable – many people have predicted it for some time, to be followed by the firing of Robert Mueller. But there is a lot that doesn’t entirely hold together. Even Maggie Haberman can’t figure it out.
Trump allies are deeply perplexed by his move against Sessions, given that it all but guarantees an investigation by House judiciary.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 7, 2018
The conventional analysis is something like this: Trump is guilty of conspiracy against the United States, or obstruction of justice, or perjury, or all three and more. Further, he understands that he and his family are guilty. Mueller continues the attack, and he must be counterattacked, which would start with removing him from his job. Trump bragged to the Russians who visited him in the Oval Office in May 2017 that he had removed James Comey, who had been pursuing Russian connections to the Trump campaign. He would likewise remove Mueller to end the “Witch Hunt.”
But that analysis assumes a particular strategy on Trump’s part: He knows he is guilty and wants to avoid the consequences in a very direct way. Haberman’s perplexity assumes such a strategy. Let’s assume a different motivation on Trump’s part.
David Roberts (@drvox) wrote a thread reminding us of Trump’s toxic narcissism. This summarizes it:
This is what I mean. All this perplexity vanishes once you internalize that Trump is only capable of aggression & escalation. He's not making "choices" or "moves," just acting based on id like always. 100% predictable, 0% perplexing. https://t.co/QfBhKfl86j
— David Roberts (@drvox) November 7, 2018
Put aside whether Trump is worried about being found guilty of anything. His ego has been hurt by Sessions’s failure to act as consigliere. In yesterday’s election, Republicans lost the House, which will complicate Trump’s presidency and, likely, his life. His morning tweets on Wednesday seemed upset, and he handled his news conference badly, seemingly indicating a distraught state of mind.
When a toxic narcissist feels injured, he must injure someone else. So it was time to use the letter Sessions gave him. Whitaker seems to be a Trump loyalist, which comforts Trump that now he has his consigliere. Unless Whitaker recuses himself (and there may be reason to do that), this is likely to calm Trump temporarily.
Trump responds in the moment, and the threshold for his action seems high (tweeting, not so much). Whether Whitaker will undertake action against Mueller on his own is not clear, even with the implicit backing of Trump. Most likely is a passive-aggressive strategy of starving the investigation of funds. As usual, Trump seems not to have anyone lined up to become Attorney General. That is consistent with the impulsive acting out of a narcissistic injury.
Further actions, by this analysis, will depend on injuries to Trump’s ego. Indictments via the Mueller investigation against Trump or his family (Don Jr. is rumored to be close to indictment) would be a great injury and a reason to fire him.
Other things can go wrong for Trump. The coming of a Democratic House and speculations about its actions will constantly irritate. A meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a North Korean representative has been postponed. For any number of reasons, Trump may feel he needs the comfort of firing Mueller. But probably not right away.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, I agree, and that makes me suspect in the next few weeks Trump will try something destructive on the nation in general since the public didn’t embrace him – and it will be even directed also to towards his base for not being loyal enough to protect him from upset.
clay
What.
How long is Whitaker allowed to remain “acting”?
Mnemosyne
Exactly. Trump has no strategy. He doesn’t do strategy. He makes knee-jerk decisions that make him feel better in the moment.
I also guarantee you that Trump has completely convinced himself that Russia had nothing to do with his victory so any investigation is automatically bogus. A narcissist invents their own reality independent of any actual evidence, so showing him/her evidence is just more proof that you’re out to get them.
It’s beyond lying, because at this point he genuinely believes that he won on his own merits. To admit otherwise would be too great an injury to be borne, so he just denies any other reality exists.
Doug R
Anyone but a toxic narcissist would have been ready for a house flip.
This past week a problem grizzly that had been injured doubled back and attacked conservation officers that were tracking it. The officer he attacked got his arm chewed on while he reached for his pistol and shot the bear in the neck and face.
A reminder that wounded animals can be the most dangerous, but Mueller has a bronze star and a purple heart so I think he can handle it.
Jeffro
I’m not gonna worry too much here…the writing is on the wall. It is all. going. to come out, and now the question to Republicans is, just how much of this do you want to own?
On MSNBC a few minutes ago they were arguing whether or not it was “strategic defense” on Trumpov’s part and I nearly collapsed in laughter. Yes…’strategic’…that’s what I think of when I think of Trumpov.
randy khan
November 7, 2018, 21-1/2 months after inauguration. These are the high-level people who’ve left the Administration or been fired:
Chief of Staff
Principal Deputy Chief of Staff
Chief Strategist (hey, that’s the title Bannon had)
National Security Advisor (twice)
Deputy National Security Advisor
Secretary of State
Attorney General
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
EPA Administrator
Press Secretary
Director of Communications (twice)
White House Counsel
United States Trade Representative
UN Ambassador (not quite gone, but already announced)
That’s quite a list. And I didn’t even consider people below the very top levels.
Doug R
@Doug R: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grizzly-bear-conservation-officer-1.4893383
Viva BrisVegas
Doesn’t Trump have still two months of a compliant Republican House?
He has a toady for AG.
Isn’t now his last best chance to make a move against Mueller?
lgerard
@randy khan:
I count 4
Spicer, Dubke, Mooch, Hicks,
The clock is ticking on Shine
lamh36
The firing of Sessions has also managed to push the loss of the House off the front page and from the lead story from media sites.
Also too…
Isn’t the WHPC not a “union” of sorts?
This is how a member of their association is being treated by Chump co…and they sit by and do…NOTHING.
debbie
Seconds too slow.
TenguPhule
Its really simple.
Trump doesn’t care.
TenguPhule
@Viva BrisVegas:
Why yes. Yes it is.
lamh36
patrick II
@Viva BrisVegas:
Did you mean to say complient or complicit?
Mnemosyne
@Viva BrisVegas:
Seriously, he doesn’t think like that. He doesn’t understand or care about strategy, especially long-term strategy. He lashes out when his core is threatened.
The really dangerous part is that Trump doesn’t have the filter that most people have of wanting to at least pay lip service to social norms. He will do things that normal people would never dream of doing, because he’s not normal and doesn’t have the social filter that would stop him.
I’ve brought this up before, but the way I knew my late brother’s estranged wife was a toxic narcissist was that she brought a U-Haul to the house he died in less than six hours after he died there and expected to be able to take stuff out of the house.
It wasn’t a deep-laid plot on her part. It was something she decided she wanted to do, and there was no filter in her brain to tell her that it might not be an appropriate time to show up at someone else’s house with a U-Haul.
J R in WV
Trump is now violating the understood conventions of the White House press corpse, and may be surprised to learn not to do that. He counts on some of the press being willing to support him with at least grudging presidential respect.
Not allowing a senior press corpse member to do his job may backfire on Trump. How dare they!?!?!?
My insomnia appears to be replaced with digestive issues… yuck! Stress induced upset stomach… glad it didn’t start November 2016!
TenguPhule
This of course does not explain the growing number of heavily armed and morally untrained agents massing on the border with Mexico.
Media not paying any more attention to them doesn’t mean they’re not going to do something bad.
Especially since the military is apparently intervening with media in the area trying to get a picture of what exactly is going on now.
Viva BrisVegas
@lamh36:
Surely not.
These are the same folks that bravely stood up to “Obama the bully” when he made some mild rebuke about the coverage by Fox News.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
That ship sailed last year. The media does not know what to do with Trump other then try and pretend he’s not crazy.
And its not working.
Yarrow
@lamh36: The press is part of the problem. That they aren’t all protesting this action by Trump says everything. They’ll be as useless as Susan Collins in any close Senate vote. They’ll talk about such actions being “problematic” and they are “concerned” about what it means. And they’ll do nothing.
@Jeffro: I’m with you. It’s far too late for Trump. It’s all coming out and they’re all going down. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Schlemazel
The assclown that led the Charlottesville march appears to have been a guest at the White House today.
Mike in NC
@lamh36: @debbie: Man-baby is having a temper tantrum. That press conference was even more whacked out than the crap about “fine people on many sides” in Charlottesville. The enemies list will grow exponentially.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: Jethrene is alleging Acosta “put his hands on” a female WH intern
Cheryl Rofer
@Viva BrisVegas: Only in a scenario in which he has a coherent strategy. The top post disputes that.
Brachiator
Anybody predict that Trump would fire Sessions today? Anyone?
It’s weird how Trump gave this shambolic press conference, looking like a tired, angry old Mafia don, even though he had the Sessions firing in his back pocket.
Trump’s actions can sometimes be adequately explained. But his moves are not easily anticipated.
It makes a certain sense to note that he went after Sessions and will go after Mueller because they are right in front of him, but there’s no doubt that he will go after the House the second they give him any grief. But the timing? That’s something else altogether.
Allies and reporters seem unwilling to recognize the degree to which Trump revels in being vindictive. It has worked for him all his life. And he knows he can get away with it because ultimately everyone in Washington politics want to kiss the president’s ass.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: seems kinda obvious, but that’s brilliant– threaten trump with the one thing he reveres more than any other: Television.
Cheryl Rofer
Continuing with my analysis up top, removing Jim Acosta’s press credential is another way of lashing out for Trump. It may help to delay Trump’s firing Mueller because it relieves some of his pain.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and, shockingly, it sure looks like the intern, who looks like a younger Jethrene, accosted Acosta.
Dev Null
@clay: Wait, wut?!?
I thought that the rule – a statute, actually – was that officials confirmed by the Senate could be parachuted into another (EDIT: confirmation-required) position for up to 180 days.
If that’s correct, then Whitaker is AAG for half a year, unless the Senate confirms a new AG earlier.
I
thinkam guessing that CR meant “until a new AG is nominated by the president* and confirmed by the Senate.”I dunno what happens should the Senate refuse to confirm a replacement nominee.
Can’t get much more “constitutional conservative” mainstream, er, TeaBagger / Federalist Society hack than opposition to Marbury v. Madison, eh?
Where do Republicans come up with these Fester doubles?!?
WaterGirl
@lamh36: That’s encouraging.
Cheryl Rofer
More of Trump’s lashing out. He is feeling VERY injured.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
I think you’re overanalyzing it.
Trump has decided he is a honey badger. That’s all.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Yes, that the central problem of dealing with a toxic narcissist. You can predict that s/he will lash out if their ego is injured, but it’s difficult to predict what form that lashing out will take because they don’t act strategically, they act impulsively. I’m betting that even Trump didn’t know he was going to do this until right before he did.
Cheryl Rofer
@TenguPhule: I think your cynicism is getting in your way.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Kobach as DHS?
I just can’t.
lamh36
Idiots like this is why the media stay losing and keep getting PWNED by Chump co & treated them like red-headed step children. And Chump co gets away with shit no other admin would. The media totally gets played by Chump
Everyone saw the video…the WH is lying…and yet this due wants to act like, it’s Acosta that the one most at fault
Quinerly
@lamh36: some of the comments on that thread are brutal. Massive pile on.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mnemosyne: I’m not gonna respond to your every comment, but we are thinking in parallel.
I’m not intending that the toxic narcissist explanation covers everything about Trump, but I think it’s badly neglected in the media. Part of the problem is that even if you use that frame, it’s hard to predict what will happen or when. A strategy makes things much more predictable.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer: I think Trump doesn’t need the excuse. He does it because he enjoys making life worse for others. No matter how petty it may be. If there’s a delay, its only because he’s trying to find the worst possible moment.
TenguPhule
And its official. The Nazis are at Baker Street.
germy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Possum Queen seems to forget about video.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Either that or AG, take your pick.
cynthia ackerman
@Cheryl Rofer:
That presser today was deeply, horrifically off the charts.
The next few months are going to get medieval.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I want a third option.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Sorry, there’s no third way.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: according to Vanity Fair, Trump is depressed.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/post-midterms-trump-is-in-a-bad-mood
lamh36
oooh is this how Maggis tweets when she’s mad? No straight stenography?
Emerald
@lamh36:
Bingo. I’ve been thinking this all day. (Not that I think the media would have treated our blue wave the way they treated the tea party–for months and months.) I give him credit for one kind of strategery: he does know how to manipulate the media.
Or, he just can’t stand it when he isn’t the major story. So he goes out and does something outrageous to grab all the headlines.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well played.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
They get very nervous about getting inside his head*, but if you don’t discuss his pretty obvious mental/ psychological/ emotional peculiarities, you’re not giving a complete picture of how he operates.
* kinda like they hesitate to say ‘racist’ cause they can’t see inside anyone’s “heart”, I’d say racist is as racist does, pretty simple
Quinerly
Whitaker is a hard core Bible thumper. Thinks judges should have a biblical pov.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/rekha-basu/2018/11/07/matt-whitakers-troubling-opinion-judges-need-biblical-view/1923393002/
RepubAnon
@Jeffro: Oh, it’s strategic – Trump’s strategy is as follows:
1) Fire Mueller
2) Loudly condemn any investigation by the Democrats as a partisan witch hunt
Notice how Mitch McConnell is already laying the groundwork for this by comparing the Russia investigation to the Whitewater investigation – which he now calls “Presidential harrassment”?
Pity the reporter didn’t ask whether all those Benghazi investigations were “presidential harassment.”
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
How does she sleep at night?
Cheryl Rofer
@Quinerly: Here’s the world’s tiniest violin, playing sad music for a depressed Trump. ????
Platonailedit
@lamh36:
Remember all the whiny butthurt from these media minions when Obama didn’t allow one of their own to photograph day to day WH activities? These assholes built this corrupt, sleazy, incompetent asshole, who has now turned into a rabid mad dog. What a whackjob for the most powerful man in the world.
lamh36
Straight up truth!
Miss Bianca
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: when you put it that way, he sounds positively Hitler in the bunker. If I .could only feel certain he would actually end up as Hitler did *before* also doing something like nuking California out of spite, I might almost feel heartened by that reflection.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: translating Trumpov here: I have no friends and only trust like 3 people in the whole world, so yeah, staffing is an issue around here. LOL. Hey GOP, next time try not to pick the King of Losers as your tribal chieftain
Platonailedit
@Cheryl Rofer:
Even his pool of corrupt incompetents is diminishing. What a loser.
Jeffro
@RepubAnon:
pre-presidential harrassment
avoid-Democratic-presidency-harrassment
Gelfling 545
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Mere evidence will never convince her.
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yep. The press keeps looking for a strategy or a plan that just isn’t there, and will never be there, because that’s not how Trump’s brain works. He lashes out on impulse and lets other people clean up the mess.
We can’t discern a strategy in what he does because there is no strategy, just impulse. This is difficult for people to understand unless they’ve dealt with a narcissist. Most people assume that everyone has some kind of strategy in mind when they take an action, because most people do. Because narcissists act to protect their core, they don’t act strategically, they act impulsively to defend themselves.
This is why so many people find that the only way to deal with a toxic narcissist in their lives is to cut them out of their lives entirely. Unfortunately, we don’t have that option for as long as Trump is president.
burnspbesq
Whitaker, it should be remembered, was campaign chair for Sam Clovis in his 2014 run for Iowa State Treasurer.
Clovis was a grand jury witness.
That is sufficient to require Whitaker to recuse himself.
I am not betting that he will do the right thing.
germy
@burnspbesq: But this grifting rosannefucker is optimistic:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca:
Not likely, he has a golf course out in PV.
burnspbesq
@germy:
Yay.
J R in WV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Unfortunately for Possum Queen there’s clear video of the whole affair. Trump’s goons have accosted far more reporters than reporters have attacked Trumpites. Crazy talk she was ordered to deliver!
Procopius
@clay: He’s allowed to remain “acting” until President* Trump nominates a new Attorney General and the Senate confirms him/her (actually, I can’t imagine the Orange One nominating a woman). Or until President* Trump is replaced. By the way, this is not something unique to Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III. Every presidential appointee, by custom, gives a letter of resignation to the President upon taking office.
Jay
@RepubAnon:
The Insane Clown POSus can’t “your fired” Rosenstien,
DAG Matthew Whittaker can, now, but can’t “your fired” Meuller.
Whomever replaces Rosenstien can, but appointments are based on seniority, so theres roughly 17 DAG’s that have to be fired en mass, before you get to one that might try to fire Meuller.
Meuller can only be fired “for cause”, for improprieties outside the scope and scale of the Investigation, like cavorting with Hookers and Blow in the lobby of a “Trump Tower”, or losing the Investigation’s full funding in an illegal Pie Gau game in a brothel in Macow.
DAG Whittaker also has a few issues/skeletons in his closet that will come into play in January, from criminal fraud , ethics issues and Russian ratfucking.
RandomMonster
Um…Is no one thinking we should be out on the streets? We’re all too old and tired to go out and protest the Wednesday Massacre?
Mai Naem mobile
@Cheryl Rofer: Xochitil Torres Small won her race from late counted ballots. It had been called for the GOP last night
Also Andy Kim in NJ beat Tom MacArthur.
Mai Naem mobile
The Acosta thing is a distraction from the House loss and Sessions. The fucking media needs to learn this. The fucking media needs to band together(minus FAUX)and do stuff in a collective manner. He needs them to spread his crap. That’s their leverage.
Ruckus
@Cheryl Rofer:
It is exactly the point that you can’t predict what will happen. You do know he will do something destructive because he sees himself as the campion of the oppressed male white class and knows no other path than destruction and hate. And there really are only so many options open to him. All of which of course are destructive, either to the country or to him. And he isn’t going to intentionally do anything to harm himself. Unintentionally sure, he’s been harming himself for decades, it’s just that he can’t work through the possibilities farther than “Hurt me, me hurt you back.” He’s a toddler in a old body, the toddler that always hits first and it’s his only response. He’s the kindergartener who has to be watched because his only response to most anything is to hit the other kids before they might hit him.
Jay
@RandomMonster:
It’s the only Confederate Monument that The Insane Clown POSus has torndown, and while “your firing” the KKKebler Elf is the first step to The Insane Clown POSus getting Meuller fired, ( like I said, he can’t fire Meuller himself), it’s the first step of the 18 required.
Nobody’s gonna miss the corrupt Klan Cookie Monster and now, he loses “Executive Privlege” if subpoenaed by the House.
Rosenstien is the “take to the streets” tripwire.
Ruckus
@germy:
I would imagine curled up in her burrow.
Matt McIrvin
@Jay: I think MoveOn decided that the red line has in fact been crossed, and their big nationwide protest is on for 5PM tomorrow.
Ruckus
@burnspbesq:
Do the right thing?
He’s a republican.
He is a member of the Federalist Society.
He works in the drumpf administration. And now directly for him.
His idea of set law is to set fire to it.
He’s incapable of doing the correct thing.
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
The MoveOn “Nobody is Above The Law” site clearly states’s it’s not Session’s firing, it’s Whittaker’s Interm Appointment that’s the line being crossed.
Jay
@Ruckus:
He was actively involved in a Corporate Fraud in 2017 that the FTC shut down, but did not press charges on.
He publically destroyed any figment of “impartiality” in several paid Op-Eds,
He’s involved in Sessions/Russia ratfucking.
If he doesn’t recuse, things will get awkward for him the first week of January.
JGabriel
Maggie Haberman via Cheryl Rofer @ Top:
Moving outside the perfectly valid context of analyzing this through Trump’s toxic narcissism, even from a political perspective it still makes some sense:
1) An investigation into Trump by the House Judiciary Committee was all but guaranteed anyway.
2) Even if it wasn’t, Trump would still prefer to be investigated by House Democrats than Judiciary, so he can more easily paint the investigation as partisan.
3) It also make it easier for Trump to paint any House testimony by members of Mueller’s team as motivated by ‘sour grapes’ over ending/downgrading the DoJ’s investigation.
That it’s all likely to backfire on Trump anyway doesn’t factor into his calculation, because he can do no wrong, which of course leads us back to his toxic narcissism.
JGabriel
He’p me, he’p me! I been modereratered!
(No idea why, I can’t find anything remotely offensive, or even pharmaceutically ad-related, in the comment.)
LaDem
@Jay: Wonder if that recent, failed attempt to set up Mueller for unfounded sex abuse had anything to do with “except for cause”?
Ruckus
@Jay:
Just hitting some of the low points. You filled in some of the lower points.
BTW there are no high points in this situation.
Not bothering to check out his criminal behavior. Didn’t really need to, to make the point.
JGabriel
Ah! I figured out why the above comment got moderated – typo in the email address when I was posting it.
Not that anyone cares, I’m just posting this to save the address correction in my posting info so I don’t forget to do it later.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
That’s not what the story says. It says that Casey is “the leader of a white nationalist group whose members marched in the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.”
The Unite the Right rally was organized by Jason Kessler.
In fact, Casey didn’t become leader of Identity Evropa until November 2017, three months after the Charlottesville rally. Further down in the story: “Several of its members marched with other white power groups in Charlottesville, and its previous leader was found guilty in a misdemeanor trial for his role.”
Jay
@LaDem:
Nope, it was an attempt by 2nd Generation Faux Bubble Boy’s to “weaponize #metoo” and thus earn fame and fortune on the wingnut grift circuit.
Aleta
I’ve been looking at Trump’s anger and bad decisions in the last month or two as possible signs that he’s been warned Don Jr is going to be indicted. (And that Don Jr. being up next was the reason Mueller had no choice but to hold off until after the election.)
If it’s true Trump knows his son will be indicted, then (without the House) he’s like a drowning man who’s run out of weapons. Throwing Whitaker at his pursuers while he tries to climb the curtains and up onto anyone else he can grab.
Not because he cares about his son independently of himself (I don’t believe he can). But (a guess) because of his dependence on forcing Republicans in Congress to accept him as their best option.
He’s afraid once they see that he can’t protect his own son, that he even forced Jr. into much worse trouble, they’ll desert him. A narcissist can’t handle the dread of exposure or of being without the defenders he’s set up as barriers around himself.
I believe narcissists can calculate, make choices and plan ahead, manipulate. They just do it with a hot brain— in a long-lasting rage or overwhelmed with desire for revenge, confirmation, vindication, etc. If they’re intelligent they can succeed for a long time.
Aleta
@Aleta:
“Brains’ll only get you so far. And luck always runs out.”
Harvey Keitel, Thelma and Louise
Cheryl Rofer
@Aleta: “A hot brain” – I like that. I agree that Trump can plan to some degree, but the exact mixture is hard to calculate, and the planning is a lot less than most analyses give him credit for.