Donald Trump signals that he thinks his Russia scandal is about to get him
Donald Trump is now just a week or two away from having to decide whether to agree to testify about his role in the Russia scandal for Special Counsel Robert Mueller or invoke the Fifth Amendment. It’s a no-win scenario, and it’s difficult to see Trump navigating past it. We’re now seeing a bizarre, yet fairly clear, signal that Trump has finally figured out his Russia scandal is about to take him down.
For the past year-plus, various media outlets have been reporting that Trump has been idly musing about having a military parade on Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House. He wanted it to happen during his inauguration. He’s floated the idea since. But now Trump is flat out telling the Pentagon to make it happen, according to the Washington Post (link). There’s a reason for this. Consider the timing.
We’ve seen this plenty of times before. When people think they’re about to lose what they have or that their current situation is about to end, they start trying to finally make the things happen that they always wanted to have happen. Trump has surely been told over and over again by his advisers that he can’t do something as egomaniacal and bizarre as have a military parade go past the White House without it blowing back on him. But at this point what difference does it make?
If this were happening at any other time, there might perhaps be a different explanation. But again, consider the timing. Donald Trump’s attorneys are now frantically trying to figure out how to prevent him from having to testify for Robert Mueller, but even they know there’s no way around it. They’ve told Trump by now that he has no way out of this. If he testifies, he goes down. If he doesn’t testify, he goes down. So he wants to fulfill his military parade fantasy while he still can.
