The mad king is not amused
by Tom Sullivan
Over at DKos, Hunter picks up on a throwaway line in a Politico story over the weekend about Trump v. DOJ:
Buried in an alarming-all-by-itself Politico article pondering how far down the line of succession we’d have to get, in the Justice Department, before we found someone who would not either have to recuse themselves from the Russia-Trump investigation or who an enraged Trump wouldn’t also summarily fire—oh, and by the way Trump might simply change the executive order setting the Justice Department’s line of succession, thus speeding up the process of, say, eventually just giving that job to Jared Kushner as well…
The basic story is pretty creepy:
Since taking office, the Trump administration has twice rewritten an executive order that outlines the order of succession at the Justice Department — once after President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend his travel ban, and then again two months later. The executive order outlines a list of who would be elevated to the position of acting attorney general if the person up the food chain recuses himself, resigns, gets fired or is no longer in a position to serve.
In the past, former Justice Department officials and legal experts said, the order of succession is no more than an academic exercise — a chain of command applicable only in the event of an attack or crisis when government officials are killed and it is not clear who should be in charge.
But Trump and the Russia investigation that is tightening around him have changed the game.
Norms meaning nothing to a wealthy businessman habituated to ignoring them and getting away with it, this is just another day at the Oval Office.
But towards the bottom is this gem:
Trump, too, is cognizant of the comparison to Nixon, according to one adviser. The president, who friends said does not enjoy living in Washington and is strained by the demanding hours of the job, is motivated to carry on because he “doesn’t want to go down in history as a guy who tried and failed,” said the adviser. “He doesn’t want to be the second president in history to resign.”
Hunter writes:
We’ve heard for a while that Trump doesn’t like the job and is feeling “strained” by it even after spending nearly every last sodding Friday-to-Sunday at Mar-a-Lago or, now that the season’s closed, hitting up one of his other golf courses—spending more time and taxpayer money on his own leisure than any president in recent history. He’s furious at the way he’s been treated in the press, and by opponents, and has been yelling at televisions and at his own staff for not making him magically successful and popular.
Now he’s under federal investigation by career public servants he can neither intimidate nor buy off. Don’t they know he’s the president?
Trump, the reality show celebrity with no experience in government, ran for the office to feed his insatiable ego and to get the world to stop laughing at him us. For the world’s greatest egotist, the presidency seemed like the world’s greatest prize. But once the alpha dog caught the car, he didn’t know what to do with it. Even the hapless wizard got the balloon off the ground, but not Trump. Instead, he signs presidential orders and empty directives in photo ops. He holds them up for the cameras like a first grader showing mom a finger painting. Do you love me now?
So Trump’s motivation for remaining in a job he hates and doesn’t know how to do, his motivation for wreaking more havoc on people’s lives, is not being viewed by history as a colossal failure. That’s … just … GREAT. Is that what #MAGA meant all along?
Maybe New York Public Theater should have gone with Lear.