Here’s the part where Donald Trump finishes himself off

| 7:30 pm EST February 16, 2018
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has spent most of his Trump-Russia investigation strategically working in secret. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has authority over the investigation, has largely been laying low as well. Yet today these two men decided to very publicly tip over the apple cart, by having Rosenstein hold a press conference just to announce the indictments against the Russians who conspired to rig the election. Why?

Trump has spent weeks trying and failing to figure out how to get away with firing Rosenstein, so he can then sabotage Mueller. Yet here was Rosenstein on live national television today, announcing that Mueller has nabbed the Russians who worked to install Trump in the White House. Rosenstein might as well have gotten up there today and said “Trump isn’t legitimately president” or “Trump is a Russian puppet” or “Nanny nanny boo boo.”

This is clearly all about goading Donald Trump. Mueller’s indictments today could have been announced in a press release, or allowed to come out in court documents. In strictly prosecutorial and investigative terms, Rosenstein had no reason to be out there today. He was out there to taunt Trump. But serious people like Rosenstein and Mueller don’t publicly taunt a suspect, let alone a suspect who happens to be illegally occupying the office of President of the United States, just for kicks. This was a strategic decision to try to set Trump off in a flurry of reckless behavior.

Donald Trump definitely can’t fire Mueller or Rosenstein now, because everyone would correctly see it as a response to the indictments. So instead Trump will spend the weekend meeting with his idiot advisers and inept attorneys who will give him stupid advice, and then he’ll decide to do something even stupider. It’ll make him look guilty, or he’ll prove him guilty. This is the part where Trump finishes himself off.