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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVanity Fair: "Trump Is Nuts. This Time Really Feels Different."
With his closest allies defecting, the president increasingly trusts only his instincts. He got joy from stripping former C.I.A. director John Brennans security clearance. And after betrayals by Allen Weisselberg and David Pecker, a former White House official says, Trump spent the weekend calling people and screaming.
After Michael Cohens plea deal last week, Donald Trump spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against flippers in a rambling Fox & Friends interview, and lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trumps New York real-estate friends including Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an intervention last week. It was supposed to be a war council, one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. You know Trumphe hates being lectured to, the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didnt comment.)
More than ever, Trump is acting by feeling and instinct. Trump is nuts, said one former West Wing official. This time really feels different. Deputy Chief of Staff Bill Shine has privately expressed concern, a source said, telling a friend that Trumps emotional state is very tender. Even Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are unsettled that Trump is so gleefully acting on his most self-destructive impulses as his legal peril grows. According to a source, Jared and Ivanka told Trump that stripping security clearances from former intelligence officials would backfire, but Trump ignored them. Kushner later told a friend Trump got joy out of taking away John Brennans clearance. His reaction to the death of John McCainquashing a White House statement in praise of the senator, and restoring White House flags to full stafffalls into the same self-indulgent category.
The news of Cohens plea and Paul Manaforts conviction, which were followed by revelations that Trump Organization C.F.O. Allen Weisselberg and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker are cooperating with federal prosecutors, have rattled Trump like few other turns in the investigation have, sources said. Flying on Air Force One to his West Virginia rally last week, Trump seemed bummed and down and out, a person briefed on his mood told me. He was acting like, I know the news is bad, but I dont know what to do about it, the source said. At the rally, an uncharacteristically subdued Trump barely mentioned Cohen or Manafort.
By the weekend, though, his anger had returned. He spent the weekend calling people and screaming, one former White House official said. According to sources, the president feels cornered with no clear way out. His months-long campaign to get Sessions to resignso that Trump could appoint a new A.G. who would shut down the Russia probenot only failed to get Sessions to step down, but its caused him to dig in, as evidenced by Sessionss rare statement asserting the independence of the Justice Department. Trump knows at least through the midterms he wont get another A.G., a former White House official said.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/donald-trump-nuts-rejects-war-council-intervention-goes-it-alone/amp?__twitter_impression=true
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Manbaby's having a sad.
herding cats
(19,565 posts)The best part is the hell his advisors are going through.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)tranquilizers ready and then run for the hills. It won't be pretty.
herding cats
(19,565 posts)The worst tantrums so far won't hold a candle to when that happens!
Fozzledick
(3,860 posts)Just before Mueller issues either a grand jury criminal indictment or an official report of impeachable high crimes against the republic and misdemeanors of authority.
Lonestarblue
(10,011 posts)Id love to see him foaming at the mouth after being restrained!
BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)That was hysterical.
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)Any day now he'll admit to ordering the "code red"....pun intended.
Poiuyt
(18,125 posts)EricMaundry
(1,619 posts)Maybe Trump should try that.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)"Things are crazy in Trump world. He's yelling at people on the phone"
herding cats
(19,565 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)I do recognize that people are entertained by stories of the chaos and the madness inside the Trump WH - I just am not sure why the Vanity Fair articles need to be written, since they all basically seem to say the same things that we already know.
herding cats
(19,565 posts)The last Vanity Fair article I read was about Cohen's connection to Trump.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)That's why I give them the business for articles like this.
herding cats
(19,565 posts)How odd, don't you think? I know I do.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)By "the Vanity Fair articles" I meant articles like this Vanity Fair one - the "Chaos in the Trump WH" type pieces that all seem to say the same things we already know. Such article are written by a variety of different publications. I didn't mean to write that Vanity Fair only does that kind of article - they obviously don't - I just meant that there seem to be a lot of them (in different places) and I don't see the point. Obviously you disagree, and that's fine, I am happy to keep kicking your article for others who like these sorts of pieces!
herding cats
(19,565 posts)When I was in high school we had a kid who used to toss M80's into bathrooms. For some freakish reason he got his kicks being an antagonist to everyone else. It's how he got his joy in life. I can't explain it, because it never made any sense to me but it was his thing. I haven't thought of him in decades.
KelleyKramer
(8,969 posts)the dog is staring at me because I was laughing so hard
Touche!