Sulking Donald Trump refused to get out of bed today
It’s not that Donald Trump ever really does any work in the White House. His daily schedule is famously dominated by “executive time” which consists of him watching Fox News in bed. But by all accounts, Trump is an early riser, and once he’s done watching the morning Fox News programming, he does come down to the Oval Office for a staff meeting before blowing off the rest of the day. Today, however, was very different.
As of 11:37am eastern time this morning, Donald Trump still had “not yet come to work” according to Hans Nichols of NBC News. Why does this matter? It’s a significant break from his usual routine, which is a big deal for someone who – despite his erratic behavior – is largely driven by (a very lazy) routine. There are two plausible explanations, and neither of them is good for Trump at all.
The first would be that he stayed in bed watching television while he waited to find out what kind of prison sentence Michael Cohen received. If this is the case, it means Trump was genuinely worried about Cohen being sent to prison – not because he has any concern for Cohen’s well being, but because he stands criminally accused of having instructed Cohen to commit felonies.
The second would be that Donald Trump is simply so depressed by everything that’s rapidly going wrong for him, he’s no longer willing or able to get out of bed in the morning. Again, he’s lazy and he does very little work, but this would be a new level of detachment for him. It also comes after he reportedly threw a tantrum and began throwing things after his failed press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
