Donald Trump’s spectacular ongoing failure in trying to oust Rod Rosenstein

| 12:50 am EDT September 22, 2018
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The New York Times did Donald Trump a huge and inexplicable favor today by publishing a laugh-out-loud story about Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein supposedly having tried to go full James Bond against Trump a year and a half ago. Other news outlets quickly exposed the Times story as having been a complete mischaracterization of Rosenstein’s words, but the damage was nonetheless done – or was it?

The NY Times story – obviously planted by Team Trump – claimed that shortly after Rod Rosenstein got the job, he offered to wear a wire during his meetings with Donald Trump, and even went so far as to try to invoke the 25th Amendment against him. How did this obviously fake story get printed at this crucial juncture? That’s a question that’ll be examined for years to come. The question for now is whether the stunt will help Trump any. Recent history casts a great deal of doubt on that.

Trump doesn’t need to give a reason for firing Rod Rosenstein. He could, and would, have done it a long time ago if he thought he could get away with it. Trump’s ongoing failure to pull the trigger confirms that he knows he can’t get away with firing Rosenstein, much as he wants to. Even though some members of the Resistance are pessimistically convinced that Trump can get away with anything he wants, even Trump seems to understand that the negative consequences of firing Rosenstein would be worse for him than anything he’d gain.

Donald Trump has spent a significant amount of time and effort trying to shift public opinion to a place where he could get away with firing Rod Rosenstein. Every time he’s tried this, the effort has failed rather spectacularly. Even though the New York Times unethically helped Trump pull off this stunt today, there is no reason – not yet at least – to conclude that this stunt has put him any closer to being able to fire Rosenstein. Again, Trump has made 100% clear that he knows he absolutely cannot fire Rosenstein unless he can change public opinion about Rosenstein. So now we wait to see if this latest stunt finally moves the needle for him.