Trump 27: Happy Holidays Orange Menace

[AmazonGrace]

IT HURTS TO BE ALONE

Enraged Trump Personally Dictated Scathing Denouncement Strategist Steve Bannon

The publication of a new book has caused a massive, immediate fissure within the ranks. And it’s left the president isolated and angry.

LACHLAN MARKAY

ASAWIN SUEBSAENG

SAM STEIN

01.03.18 4:33 PM ET

 

Spoiler

 

The publication Wednesday of salacious excerpts from a new book on the Trump presidency re-opened a major fissure between the president and his former campaign CEO and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury appeared, on the surface, to turn Bannon from a pariah to a full-on leper within the Republican Party. After it was reported that Bannon had called the meeting of Trump campaign officials—including Trump’s eldest son—and Russian operatives as “treasonous,” Trump followed suit by saying his one-time consiglieri had lost his mind. Don Jr., former communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and the political operation run by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) all took turns gleefully dancing on the Breitbart chairman’s possible political grave.

Lost in it the circular firing squad, was a far more painful reality for the president himself.  

He’s isolated.

Bannon may be persona non grata in the GOP, for this news cycle at least. But it is Trump who is forced to navigate a difficult stretch of his presidency with paper-thin alliances, an increasingly cemented perception that he is well out of his depth, and a conservative press corps run by individuals either at odds with him or who think he’s a dope.

Inside the White House, a bunker mentality took hold Wednesday. There was a sense of palpable anger at the quotes Bannon gave to Wolff for his book. According to White House sources, Trump personally dictated the statement bashing his former chief strategist to senior communications staff, including Communications Director Hope Hicks. He was emphatic about including put-downs such as “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” and “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory...”

Bannon, of course, had helmed the Trump campaign to victory in 2016, worked as the top strategist in the Trump White House, and remained a close adviser to the president even following his ouster in August. But that relationship appears, yet again, fractured.

“[Bannon] likes talking to reporters as much as the president, maybe even more, and that’s a problem,” a senior Trump aide told The Daily Beast. “Ego does you in.”

According to those who spoke with the president on Wednesday, Trump appeared more furious that Bannon appeared to take too much credit for the 2016 victory, and less focused on the “treasonous” remarks. Members of President Trump’s inner circle, including his immediate family, were instantly enraged on Wednesday after the Bannon excerpts dropped, and began hitting the phones to communicate to friends the imperative of ensuring Bannon is banished in Trump-world.

But the broadside against Bannon obscured the existence of numerous other, similarly biting takes on Trump and his presidency. Wolff quotes News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch as calling Trump a “fucking idiot.” He quotes former Fox News chief Roger Ailes encouraging Bannon not to “give Donald too much to think about.” The book reports that former deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh thought the White House was incompetently run. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former chief of staff Reince Priebus believe Trump to be an “idiot.” Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, regards Trump as “dumb as shit.” The president’s top national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, considers him a “dope.” Even Trump’s beloved daughter, Ivanka, seems to be in on the gag.

“She treated her father with a degree of detachment, even irony,” wrote Wolff, “going so far as to make fun of his comb-over to others.”

None of this, notably, includes Secretary of State Rex Tillerson own take on his boss. A “fucking moron” is how he reportedly deemed Trump.

Neither the White House nor Bannon returned a request for comment.

Faced with such an overwhelming flood of mockery, the White House took the only route it could: denouncing the book as being built on a series of fallacies. And, indeed, some details seem sketchy (Wolff suggests that Trump didn’t know who former House Speaker John Boehner was despite the two men having once golfed together) and others potentially wrong. Both Walsh, and Trump’s longtime pal Tom Barrack (quoted as calling Trump “crazy” and “stupid”), both claimed they were quoted inaccurately.

But other Wolff sources backed up his reporting.

According to sources close to Bannon, he did not privately dispute to friends, colleagues, and advisers on Wednesday anything attributed to him that appeared in the soon-to-be-released book. He didn’t claim to be taken out context, and instead insisted that he was right, and that these opinions have been his firmly held assessments for months.

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, meanwhile, was quoted by Wolff as saying Trump’s limited attention span meant that he couldn’t get a tutorial on the constitution past the Fourth Amendment. Asked if this was true, Nunberg— who, it should be noted, was fired by Trump— told The Daily Beast that the quotes attributed to him were accurate. “I sat with Michael,” he explained. “He is a great writer.” He included, for good measure, a video of Conor McGregor, holding up a championship belt, declaring “from the bottom of me heart I’d like to take this chance to apologize…. To absolutely nobody. The double champ does what the fuck he wants.”

All, of course, is not lost for Trump. The power of his post ensures that he will still have lawmakers, media sycophants, and others who will stick with him through the muck, even if those individuals are more supplicants than true allies.

Wolff’s book, moreover, is hardly the first to shake a White House to its core. In the early days of the Bush administration, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill penned a tell all that revealed a determination on the president’s part to invade Iraq. Bill Clinton’s longtime aide George Stephanopoulos drew the ire of much of Clinton world when he wrote about the dysfunction of that White House and his personal disappointments with his old boss.

But those crises seem quaint compared to what the current administration faces now—a president polling poorly, with complicated relationships on Capitol Hill, hostile relations with his own cabinet and now openly at war with one of the few outside political apparatuses that was supportive of his agenda.

Wolff’s book portrayed a level of shambolic disfunction at the core of an administration. But it’s central thesis is a president, increasingly and painfully alone.

“If anything I think or hear is true,” said James Carville, another former Clinton aide, “we are just seeing the tiny tip of the iceberg that is coming. And secondly, I think George never accused anyone of treason. That is a serious charge isn’t it?”

 

 

Quote

But the broadside against Bannon obscured the existence of numerous other, similarly biting takes on Trump and his presidency. Wolff quotes News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch as calling Trump a “fucking idiot.” He quotes former Fox News chief Roger Ailes encouraging Bannon not to “give Donald too much to think about.” The book reports that former deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh thought the White House was incompetently run. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former chief of staff Reince Priebus believe Trump to be an “idiot.” Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, regards Trump as “dumb as shit.” The president’s top national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, considers him a “dope.” Even Trump’s beloved daughter, Ivanka, seems to be in on the gag.

They just can't agree about ANYTHING, can they? Is Trump an effing moron or a fucking idiot? Is he dumb as shit? Is he a dope? Can he be a dope and  idiot at the same time? NOBODY knows. 

I wouldn't put it past Trump to have forgotten Boehner's name however many golf games they played. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Trump has friends? 

[onekidanddone]

5 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Trump has friends? 

Ah that is our man. Grabbing pussy in the name of Jesus 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

he lost his mind,” and “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory...”

Dumpy, talking about himself again. Deflecting his feeling and knowledge about himself onto Bannon this time.

59 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

Trump has friends? 

Again, he sweet-talks them to get information then uses it against them to get what he wants. They go along to save themselves from the humiliation. This is how he manipulates people.

[onekidanddone]

43 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

She stayed with Trump because?  Is money and 'fame' worth all that? Stockholm syndrome comes to mind, but shit everybody in his orbit much have it because you know he treats everybody like crap.

I followed the link to Rawstory and it said Trump treated Hicks in an almost parental fashion. Considering how creepy he acts around Ivanka, that is not exactly comforting 

[GreyhoundFan]

OMG: "Trump abolishes controversial commission studying voter fraud"

Spoiler

President Trump on Wednesday announced that he is disbanding a controversial voter fraud commission launched last year in the wake of his baseless claim that he lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of millions of illegally cast ballots.

The commission met only twice amid a series of lawsuits seeking to curb its authority and claims by Democrats that it was stacked to recommend voting restrictions favorable to the president’s party.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there is “substantial evidence of voter fraud” and blamed the ending of the commission on the refusal of many states to provide voter data sought by the commission and the cost of ongoing federal lawsuits.

The bipartisan panel, known the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, had been nominally chaired by Vice President Pence and led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who has aggressively sought to prosecute voter fraud in his state.

In the statement, Sanders said Trump had signed an executive order asking the Department of Homeland Security to review voter fraud issues and “determine next courses of action.”

What's Kobach going to do? I hope he is crying bitter tears.

[onekidanddone]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

In the statement, Sanders said Trump had signed an executive order asking the Department of Homeland Security to review voter fraud issues and “determine next courses of action.”

This bothers me. Now Homeland Security is in charge of this? A new way for him to suppress the vote by calming the resistance is a threat and keeping us from voting. 

[Cartmann99]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

Yeah, Fuck Face showing again how much regard he has for strong women;

 

What are the odds that one of Trump's female surrogates will soon pop up to say that she would be proud if Trump called her that? 

 

[onekidanddone]

5 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

What are the odds that one of Trump's female surrogates will soon pop up to say that she would be proud if Trump called her that? 

 

How will Sarah stooge-a-bee  Sanders going to spin this?  Can you imagine if a reporter asked her in so many words what she thought? 

[GreyhoundFan]

"New Year’s Eve at Mar-A-Lago: Another reminder of Trump’s degradation"

Spoiler

Amid all the outsize craziness emanating from the Trump White House, it’s easy to lose track of all of the smaller devolutions of norms that might seem relatively trivial, but when taken together, add up over time to produce what really is at bottom a corrupt and kleptocratic regime.

On one front after another, relentlessly and constantly, Donald Trump is turning his time into the White House into a just-in-time marketing opportunity, with no penny too small to turn down.

This past weekend at Mar-a-Lago, guests paid up anything between $600 (for club members) to $750 (guests) to attend the annual New Year’s Eve party hosted at the Trump-owned resort that Trump himself refers to as the “Winter White House.” That was a hefty price hike for the celebrants — last year, the event cost between $500 and $575.

That’s wasn’t the first 2017 price increase for Mar-A-Lago. Early in the year, the club doubled its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. At the time, Norm Eisen, the former White House ethics czar for the Obama administration and now the chair of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, told The Post that the sudden 100 percent increase could only be described as “naked profiteering.”

As for Sunday’s night’s festivities, Eisen said on Twitter:

There’s no question that some of this spending by Mar-A-Lago guests is inspired by an effort to make nice to someone who could fairly be described as the most powerful person on the planet, never mind in the United States. It’s hardly the first example of it.

In the wake of last year’s white supremacists rally and Trump’s failure to unequivocally condemn it, numerous charities who traditionally held functions at Mar-A-Lago began to cancel en masse. But then they were replaced by any number of right wing concerns, at least some of them not exactly looking to use a charity or political gala for the traditional purpose, which is to make a buck for themselves. Instead, they wanted the money to go to Trump.

“We’re supporting our president,” conservative activist Steve Alembik told The Post last year, admitting he didn’t expect his “Truth About Israel Gala” to make much, if any money at all.

This, too, should have been a scandal. I mean, someone all but admitted they were holding an event at Mar-A-Lago that they expected to earn nothing from while the president of the United States profited. It was not widely seen as a scandal.

There’s plenty more of this. Prior to Trump’s election, his Washington-based hotel was projected to lose $2.1 million in the first four months of 2017. Instead, it netted a profit of $1.97 million during the same period.  There is little doubt that spending by people who want to get in good with the president is partly responsible for that unexpected business bonanza.

And remember when Trump said that no, he wouldn’t put his business in a blind trust but he would keep a hand’s off approach to his business?  The Daily Beast reported that the director of revenue management for Trump’s Washington hotel sent an email to a friend discussing a meeting he’d had with the president, at which Trump asked “about banquet revenues and demographics.” As president, he went on to assure his correspondent, “DJT is supposed to be out of the business and passed on to his sons, but he’s definitely still involved.”

The news cycle moved on. It’s like it didn’t happen.

Once corruption — and make no mistake, this is what this is — gains a toehold in public life, is extremely hard to dislodge. It feeds on itself, contributing to a breakdown in norms among everyone. If the guy on top sees no need to forego short-term profits in an effort to maintain appearances and, in fact, sees his time in the White House as a way to increase the amount of money he is earning in real time,  why on earth should we expect anyone else behave any more honestly or ethically?

And that is, in fact, what we are seeing happen. Companies with business pending before the United States’ regulators are announcing year-end bonuses, claiming they are tied to the recent tax reform package, a transparent an effort at cozying up to power as there ever was. Any number of members of Congress who voted yes on that plan stood to benefit it. So too does Donald Trump, the man who signed it into law.

The breakdown of precedent is, well, unprecedented. Howl all you want about former presidents and their family members charging Wall Street banks hundreds of thousands of dollars for a speech and a few hours of their time, but at least they had the enough commitment to civic life and the public good to wait till they left the White House to put their hand out.

No longer. Thanks, Trump.

Sad, but true.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

Ah that is our man. Grabbing pussy in the name of Jesus 

Franklin Graham and Mike Huckabee should be along any minute to defend Trump from these scurrilous attacks. Everyone knows that Jesus has transformed Trump into a devout man who never swears, takes advantage of others, loses his temper, or looks at women with lust in his heart. 

Something tells me Mother is seething tonight. She and Pence will be forever linked to a vulgar carnival barker with grabby hands. Blind ambition can take you to some really disgusting places, right Mother?

[fraurosena]

The mandarine menace’s meltdown has him threatening to sue. Yeah, like that’s really going to happen. The toddler would have to testify.

Trump attorney sends Bannon cease & desist letter

I’m on my phone and quoting is too difficult, but the article is worth a read, if only for the insight into certain paragraphs of the non-disclosure agreement all WH and campaign staffers had to sign.

 

[fraurosena]

Ugh. This is getting boring. He's getting way too predictable. Yawn.

 

 

[fraurosena]

Blah blah, failed "blah", blather, Blah, chest-pounding, insult, BLAH!  

 

[fraurosena]

If he really is going senile, as this article heavily implies, I almost feel sorry for the presidunce. He's a mentally deficient old man being used to benefit the ambitions of those around him.

Almost. Because he's still the moron with the nuclear button. And a he's a douche. And a misogynist. And a racist. And a bigot. And a molester. And a money-launderer. And a crook. And...  

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"A considered response to Trump’s critics: Your momma"

Spoiler

So the haters in the Fake News Media are again having a wild rumpus, this time because President Trump, threatening nuclear war via Twitter, taunted North Korea’s Kim Jong Un by saying his “Nuclear Button” is “a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

To those who say it is juvenile for the president of the United States to deliver playground taunts about nuclear annihilation, I offer this considered response: Your momma.

To those who say Trump is demeaning his high office, I have a ready rejoinder: Don’t be a bunch of dork-faces.

To those who think it vulgar for the president to boast about the size and functionality of his nuclear button (after boasting during the campaign about the size and functionality of his, er, love button), I offer two thoughts: 1) You booger-munchers make me puke. And, 2) Suck it up, you snot-faced phlegm-wads.

Not only does Trump have the biggest and most beautiful, well-functioning nuclear button, but he has the greatest and most beautiful taunts. North Korea simply can’t compete. The best Kim has come up with was calling Trump a “dotard.”

Fail! I know I speak for all 320 million Americans when I say we did not know that word. Every one of us had to look it up. But Trump, Smarty McThinkalot that he is, knows how to talk to us. However else we may be divided, virtually all American voters have finished the third grade and therefore understand the language of playground insults. And nobody speaks it better than Trump.

If Kim knew his taunts better, he would have responded in kind. When Trump called him “short and fat,” Kim would have replied with, “Oh, really, Das Gropenführer?” or, “Bite me, Mango Mussolini.”

When Trump called Kim “Rocket Man,” the North Korean could have said, “Shut it, Darth Hater,” or, “Can it, you Talking Yam.” Kim, when dubbed a “madman” by Trump, could have achieved deterrence by addressing Trump as Agent Orange, Adolf Twitler, Hair Führer or perhaps the Angry Cheeto.

Countertaunted so forcefully, Trump would probably be reduced to saying: “Oh yeah? Well, ‘madman’ times infinity!” — thus opening himself up to the obvious but effective parry, “‘Mango Mussolini’ times infinity plus one!”

The two nuclear-armed leaders could go on firing ballistic missives across the Pacific:

Trump: “Idiot-hole!”

Kim: “Jerk-bucket!”

Trump: “Chunky McEats-a-Lot!”

Kim: “Pudgy McTrumpcake!”

Finally, Gen. Kelly would discover that Trump was tweeting and would take away his phone — and the nuclear standoff would end.

The North Korean dictator could learn by watching the way two masters of the genre — Trump and his former top strategist, Steve Bannon — taunt each other.

Bannon: You made the dumbest political decision in modern political history, bar none.

Trump: You not only lost your job, you lost your mind.

Bannon: Treasonous. Unpatriotic. Bad sh--.

Trump: You’re only in it for yourself.

Bannon: Your momma is so fat, when she walked in front of the TV, I missed three commercials.

Trump: Your momma is so fat that when she weighed herself the scale said, “One at a time, please.”

But wait! Why am I advising that North Korean blowhole? As a patriotic American, I should be helping my country perfect the adolescent arts. And so, as gift to the president, I have composed a first draft of his State of the Union address:

My fellow Americans, including all of my enemies and haters, you idiot-holes. There are those who say that I am unfit to hold this office and who are calling for my impeachment. But what they do not realize is this: I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you. Tag, no tag-backs. Yes, Democrat jerk-weeds kept us from repealing Obamacare, but we passed a huge tax cut for the rich. In your face! And after years of nothing from President Wimpy McSissypants, I told ISIS: Talk to the hand, because the face ain’t listening.

Let the word go forth to all fatheads who say my administration stinks of corruption: He who smelt it dealt it. Let all dog-breath goobers who say I am dragging down Republicans know this: LALALALALALA! I can’t hear you! And let everybody who thinks me a failure hear this: I know you are, but what am I? Your FACE is a failure.

The state of my union is bigger and more powerful than the state of your union. And your momma knows it.

It does feel like we are witnessing a playground put-down fest, doesn't it? I'm surprised Agent Orange hasn't started with "your mother wears combat boots", which used to be a major insult when I was young. Since my mom was in the army, I would respond with, "yeah, and your point is?"

[Howl]

A cautionary note on Michael Wolff's reputation.  According to several talking heads on Morning Joe, Wolfe doesn't always source carefully and doesn't always distinguish between what's been researched and confirmed and what is hearsay -- he's a little sloppy.  However, he apparently taped many of his interviews, so there's that.  For people who have read the excerpts, there is virtually nothing in the book that seems too insane, too outre,  too disgusting, too illegal, too vulgar to be out of character for Trump.  Wolff has known and been close to Trump for a long time and had a lot of access to the West Wing, so he's buried the shiv deep between the shoulder blades with this book. 

The crazy going down between Bannon and Trump (two assholes mooning each other), is just an iceberg sized blob of icing on the layered shit cake that is this current administration.  It will be fascinating to watch the reich-wing fault lines fracture. Some will stay loyal to Trump, some will follow Bannon.  For many Breitbart fans, especially conservative vets, Bannon's military service could be key, and they will finally allow themselves to see Trump for who he really is.  However, Bannon has attacked Don. Jr, which apparently has seriously pissed off many Breitbart-ers, who really, really, REELLLY like Don, Jr., and have unloaded on Bannon in the comments section -- from their mom's basement to your ears, heh heh.  

13 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Something tells me Mother is seething tonight. She and Pence will be forever linked to a vulgar carnival barker with grabby hands. Blind ambition can take you to some really disgusting places, right Mother?

I'm sure she's comforting herself by mentally redecorating the White House with Bible verses, knowing that there is a good possibility she could be FLOTUS before it's all over. 

BRAIN FLASH:  This just in (it occurred to me this minute).  The Wolff book details how Trump (and Melania too) assumed he would not win the election, it would just bring fame and fortune to the Trump brand.  As Trump fights Mueller's Russia investigation, it isn't a fear that collusion with Russia will be exposed.  It is 100% fear that highly illegal financial dealings (money laundering, for starters) with Russian oligarchs and mafiosi WILL be exposed, and that some or all of those unreported illegal transactions will expose massive tax fraud on Trump's part.  This is the kind of shit that can lead directly to prison.  If this is so, Trump will fight hard to stay in the White House, where his status will protect him from exposure to serious criminal charges. 

Remember, you read it here first!  

Is this the watershed moment, the turning point, that we've all been waiting for?  Who the hell knows. 

[fraurosena]

3 minutes ago, Howl said:

BRAIN FLASH:  This just in (it occurred to me this minute).  The Wolff book details how Trump (and Melania too) assumed he would not win the election, it would just bring fame and fortune to the Trump brand.  As Trump fights Mueller's Russia investigation, it isn't a fear that collusion with Russia will be exposed.  It is 100% fear that highly illegal financial dealings (money laundering, for starters) with Russia WILL be exposed, and that some of those unreported illegal transactions will reveal massive tax fraud.  Remember, you read it here first!  

Oh yes! This is what they all fear the most. Why do you think he's been so secretive about his tax returns? Why do you think he stated that digging into his finances was a red line? It's because of what will be discovered once someone starts really looking. And you can bet your bottom dollar that Mueller is looking, right at this very minute. And unraveling all of the financial entanglements will also reveal the many, many financial shenanigans of the repugliklans on the hill too. Why do you think so many of them are now suddenly so defensive of the presidunce? Why do you think so many of them are so disparaging of Mueller and the FBI? They are desperately afraid of what will come to light...

I also think that the presidunce has his ultimate defense at the ready. Wanna bet that at some point when his back is against the wall that the 'but he's senile' ploy is going to be played as a stay out of jail card?

[47of74]

Some news out of the White House

Quote

The White House is going to start barring employees from using their personal cellphones at work, press secretary Sarah Sanders said early Thursday.

Sanders said in a statement that the "security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration."

Therefore, she said, the use of "all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing."

"Staff will be able to conduct business on their government-issued devices and continue working on behalf of the American people," she added, according to an Associated Press reporter.

I'm for it as long as it includes the orange fornicate. 

[Howl]

Quote

Sanders said in a statement that the "security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration."

Does this extend to blocking staff and aides from using private email or a, uh, private email server?  Asking for a friend. 

6 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I also think that the presidunce has his ultimate defense at the ready. Wanna bet that at some point when his back is against the wall that the 'but he's senile' ploy is going to be played as a stay out of jail card?

According to many reports of his mental status, 'but he's senile' may be accurate.  It would be great if ...but he's senile! replaced ...but her emails! as a rallying cry for the far Right. 

Truly, a grotesque version of Chance the Gardner really is "leading" this country. 

[AmazonGrace]

Quote

Sanders said in a statement that the "security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration."

This is code for, "we have things to hide, conversations to lie about and lordy, we hope there aren't any tapes".

But uh oh, it looks like Wolff has tons of them:

 

I wonder if Trump has reserved a fake news media award for him.

I wonder if Trump has reserved a fake news media award for him.

I wonder if Trump has reserved a fake news media award for him.

[AmazonGrace]

Yeah! Sue! Sue! Sue! I want to hear the tapes in discovery

[GreyhoundFan]

Interesting take on the book from Jennifer Rubin: "Michael Wolff’s book leaves breadcrumbs for Mueller to investigate"

Spoiler

Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” should set off alarm bells for President Trump’s legal team. Two tidbits in particular point to areas of inquiry for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Most important of Wolff’s reports is Trump’s drafting while on Air Force One of the statement concerning his son’s June 2016 meeting with Russian officials. The Post reported last summer:

Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.

This is damning both because it involves an effort arguably to cover up the real purpose of the meeting and, more important, because Trump was personally involved. This would be one powerful element in an obstruction-of-justice charge, if one is forthcoming, and certainly in considering impeachment, which would look beyond the four-corners of criminal statutes to see if Trump abused his office (crafting a misleading statement from the White House) for nefarious purposes (concealing a possibly incriminating meeting).

We already know Mueller’s team has interviewed White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who was reportedly present during the back-and-forth discussions regarding the statement. He now may want to talk with former Trump legal spokesman Mark Corallo. Axios reports on the following excerpt from Wolff’s book: “Mark Corallo [former spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team] … privately confiding [to Wolff] that he believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice — quit.”

Corallo is no crank. Matthew Miller, former Justice Department spokesman under President Barack Obama, says, “I don’t know him personally, but he has a reputation as a solid, honest guy.”

As a preliminary matter, it is critical to determine what precisely Corallo saw, what he directly observed and what gave him concern. If he has not already done so, Corallo will need to be interviewed. “Any obstruction case always involves the totality of all of the factual circumstances at play, so it’s always a mistake to read too much into any one reported fact,” Lawfare blog’s Ben Wittes tells me. “These cases are always about all of the facts in interaction with one another. That said, it certainly is interesting that one of the participants in that meeting reportedly believed it at the time to be a potential obstruction.”

Miller agrees that Corallo may be a key witness. “I think it’s clear that Mueller will be reaching out to talk to Corallo soon, if he hasn’t already, to find out what led him to draw that conclusion,” Miller says. “Corallo’s opinion isn’t so much relevant as the underlying facts leading him to believe the president committed obstruction are.” He adds, “Corollo was hired by Trump’s legal team and they will likely try to claim his interactions are covered by attorney-client privilege, but we have already seen Mueller obtain testimony from one spokesperson in this case, when he subpoenaed [Paul] Manafort’s spokesman to the grand jury.” Moreover, by talking openly about the drafting sessions and including non-lawyers, there’s a good chance any privilege was waived.

The second important tidbit Wolff reported involves Stephen K. Bannon’s opinion that “the chance that Don Jr. did not walk these jumos [Russian officials] up to his father’s office on the twenty-sixth floor is zero.” No evidence so far has come to light to suggest that is true. Trump has denied meeting these people or knowing anything about the meeting. Bannon is engaging in pure speculation but can be checked in multiple ways. He can be asked why he thinks this occurred. Not only the president’s son but also anyone in the vicinity of Trump’s office would need to be queried. At some point, the special counsel may get the chance to question Trump directly.

There is nothing illegal about Trump meeting with Russians, no matter how inappropriate or unwise it may have been. (As Bannon correctly points out, “Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s—, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”) However, given the multiple denials from the Trump camp, lying about or concealing this incident again becomes one more unfortunate fact for Trump.

Just like the dossier, the book itself is not evidence. What it does do, however, is provide leads for Mueller, if he hasn’t already found them for himself. It also puts pressure on Senate Intelligence Committee investigators to get Corallo and others in to testify under oath. Frankly, these explosive items may explain why Trump wigged out over the past few days.

 

[GrumpyGran]

Wow, this book. Just wow. This guy had to know that Dumpy would be furious. And try to stop the book. It's interesting to me that so much is being put out there in advance of the book actually being released. 

I bet the paranoia is running deep now. Hence the ban on personal devices. This is going to make it more difficult for the devoted Trump zombies to ignore reality. And the atmosphere in the WH is probably toxic now. Is Dumpy pissed at Ivanka? Is Hopey sufficiently humiliated to the point where she'll defect? Are the staffers who kissed Bannon's ass because they HAD to now terrified that they too will become curb trash? Will we start seeing an exodus of staffers?