Robert Mueller laid a trap, and Donald Trump just walked right into it
Donald Trump does not read Palmer Report. If he did, he wouldn’t keep making so many unforced errors in the Trump-Russia scandal. So we’re not tipping Trump off to anything when we spell out here that Special Counsel Robert Mueller laid a trap for him, and Trump just walked right into it. Actually, it’s more like he jubilantly pranced into the trap because he thought it meant he’d won, just as Mueller knew he would.
This evening the Washington Post reported that Mueller has informed Trump’s attorneys that Trump is under investigation in the Trump-Russia scandal, but he’s not currently a “criminal target” of the investigation. In reality, this simply means that Trump isn’t yet officially classified as a target, and that since he is officially a subject of the investigation, he can officially become a target at a moment’s notice. But don’t try explaining that to Trump, who is reportedly celebrating the news.
Palmer Report has stated the view that this bad news for Donald Trump, because he’s unofficially been the primary target of the Trump-Russia investigation all along, and this means he’s on his way to officially becoming a target. That same view is being shared this evening by political analysts and legal experts. What Trump doesn’t get is that Mueller laid a trap, and he just skedaddled right into it.
Donald Trump has routinely demonstrated that he’s clueless when it comes to how criminal investigations work. He thought he was off the hook when then-FBI Director James Comey told him that he wasn’t (yet) personally under investigation. By telling Trump now that he’s merely a subject and not a target, Robert Mueller has tricked Trump into believing that he’s once again off the hook. This should cause Trump to let his guard down about Mueller, even as Mueller moves in on him. Trump just doesn’t get it.
