“He got whacked,” Donald Trump said in mob-movie-speak. During a rambling, White House “celebration” of his Senate impeachment acquittal last week, Trump referred to Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana being shot at a 2017 Republican congressional baseball practice. The petite mob boss official has had vengeance on his mind ever since he “walked.” Trump means to get even with those who violated the code of silence.
One of the first purged was Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman. Once assigned to the National Security Council for his expertise on Ukraine, Vindman defied Trump’s wishes and testified before the House impeachment inquiry. He was escorted from the White House Friday and exiled to the Pentagon. And with him Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman.
“You have to take out their families,” Trump the candidate said of terrorists.
The same day, Trump fired Gordon D. Sondland, now-former ambassador to the European Union. Sondland famously testified to Trump’s quid pro quo on Ukraine arms for which the House impeached Trump.
Trump fancies himself the head of a crime family. He “doesn’t give orders,” Michael Cohen, Trump’s jailed, former personal attorney, told a House committee last year. “He speaks in a code.”
Tuesday, Trump suggested the Army “take a look at” Vindman’s actions, signalling he doesn’t believe Vindman losing his White House job is enough. Trump wants him “whacked” in some fashion.
Trump expects underlings to act on his suggestions. Or a tweet. A tweet is fine.
When news broke Tuesday of the sentence proposed for convicted Trump adviser Roger Stone, Trump was displeased. It matters not that the sentence follows federal sentencing guidelines. Stone is a goodfella.
Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice got the memo:
Washington (CNN) — In an extraordinary move, all four federal prosecutors who took the case against longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone to trial withdrew Tuesday after top Justice Department officials undercut them and disavowed the government’s recommended sentence against Stone.
The mass withdrawal of the career prosecutors on the case was a stunning response to the controversial and politically charged decision by Attorney General William Barr and other top Justice Department officials to reduce prosecutors’ recommended sentence of up to nine years, which came just hours after Trump publicly criticized it on Twitter.
David Lurie writes at Daily Beast that Barr is “doing his part to trash the reputation and authority of the Department of Justice he leads, and to make clear that there is no higher authority in Donald Trump’s America than a presidential tweet.”
Trump replaced Jeff Sessions as attorney general to install a capo.
Writes Peter Baker at the New York Times, “More axes are sure to fall“:
A senior Pentagon official appears in danger of losing her nomination to a top Defense Department post after questioning the president’s suspension of aid to Ukraine. Likewise, a prosecutor involved in Mr. Stone’s case has lost a nomination to a senior Treasury Department position. A key National Security Council official is said by colleagues to face dismissal. And the last of dozens of career officials being transferred out of the White House may be gone by the end of the week.
Politico’s Kyle Cheney tweeted Tuesday evening:
In 6 days since acquittal, Trump/WH have:
-Removed Vindman
-Removed Sondland
-Vowed payback/retribution
-Attacked judge in Roger Stone case
-Attacked DOJ prosecutors for Stone sentencing proposal
-Attacked FBI Director Wray
-Withdrawn Liu/McCusker nominations
Trump’s MAGA followers may be a cult of personality, but Trump has molded the Republican Party into a mob family. It is no accident his family business is not named the Trump Company or Trump, Inc., but the Trump Organization.
And it’s not even clear from the Wikipedia image above if Trump himself is the real Boss or just an Underboss.
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