The Atlantic’s Elaina Plott has a piece up today about Team Trump’s plan to respond to the Mueller report. The plan is, there is no plan. Aides know Trump would ignore any strategy they create anyway, so they aren’t bothering with it.
“We would always put together plans with the knowledge that he wouldn’t use them or they’d go off the rails,” one recently departed official told me. “And at this point, with Mueller, they’ve decided they’re not even going to do that.”
“It’s like, ‘Jesus, take the wheel,’” the source added, “but scarier.”
Okay then. There are some pretty salty quotes from Giuliani in the story. Here’s one on Trump drafting responses to Mueller’s questions a while back:
“Answering those questions was a nightmare,” he told me. “It took him about three weeks to do what would normally take two days.”
You don’t say. Here’s Giuliani, pretend lawyer, on trying to control the raging, overgrown toddler who pretends to be president:
Giuliani initially pushed back on the prediction that Trump would take center stage after the report drops. “I don’t think following his lead is the right thing. He’s the client,” he told me. “The more controlled a person is, the more intelligent they are, the more they can make the decision. But he’s just like every other client. He’s not more … you know, controlled than any other client. In fact, he’s a little less.”
Jesus, Rudy — you’re lucky Trump doesn’t read.
Here’s Giuliani on Trump’s busy schedule:
There was the sheer problem of finding time—Giuliani recalled one instance when they were working on the list and Chief of Staff John Kelly broke in to tell Trump about the migrant caravan, which grabbed the president’s attention immediately. And there was the specificity of the questions themselves: “He’s got a great memory,” Giuliani said. “However, basically we were answering questions about 2016, the busiest year of his life. It’s a real job to remember.”
Yeah, gotta drop everything to respond to the national threat posed by [dun-dun-DUN] The Caravan. Something tells me this isn’t the last time we’ll hear excuses for Trump’s failure to remember events that occurred in 2016.
Anyhoo, cool strategy, bro. I’m sure it’ll all work out.
Open thread!