Did Donald Trump fall in?
This is turning out to be one of the worst Mondays of Donald Trump’s life. First his attorney Michael Cohen was forced to make the stunning reveal that he also had Fox News host Sean Hannity as a client, making a huge mess for Trump and Hannity both. Then a federal judge ruled against Trump’s attempt at getting the evidence thrown out from the FBI’s Cohen raid. We’ve been waiting for Trump to explode in response. Instead we’re just getting some weird things out of him this evening.
Donald Trump posted a comparatively meek Twitter attack against James Comey this morning, then attacked the media over the Syria bombing, before going quiet. In his defense, he did have a political event in Hialeah, Florida, today. So it’s understandable that he wasn’t live-tweeting nonsense about the Sean Hannity scandal as it was unfolding. But by the evening he should have been exploding with anger.
Trump’s normal pattern of behavior would have him tweeting horrible things about the judge in the case, while either defending Hannity and Cohen or pretending he’s never met either one of them. By now Hannity’s nightly Fox News show is underway, and we know darn well that Trump is watching it on tonight of all nights. Yet he still hasn’t tweeted anything. He might yet before the night is over. But just a few moments ago, his Twitter account began posting a number of retweets from various Republican figures. This is typically done by his social media handler Dan Scavino, and only when Trump himself is done with Twitter for the evening.
So is this it? Is Donald Trump so stunned and paralyzed at this new Sean Hannity scandal, he has nothing to say? Combine that with Trump having seemingly run out of gas with regard to James Comey this morning, and you have to wonder if this day has simply defeated him. Will he be back ranting idiotically tomorrow, or has he finally been broken?
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report