Donald Trump flips out after learning White House Counsel Don McGahn flipped on him a long time ago
Today the mainstream media is reporting the supposedly “breaking” news that White House Counsel Don McGahn has long been fully cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller behind Donald Trump’s back. If you’re a longtime Palmer Report reader, you’ve already known this for ten months. But it’s pretty clear that Trump has been blindsided by this today, as it means McGahn has been selling him out from under his nose all along. Trump’s reaction to the news tells us something about the situation he now finds himself in.
Normally under these circumstances, Donald Trump would either explode at the person who has sold him out, or insist that the entire story is “fake news” to begin with. In this instance, Trump didn’t do either of those things. Instead he tried to insist that he somehow gave Don McGahn permission to sell him out to Mueller: “I allowed White House Counsel Don McGahn, and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel. In addition we readily gave over one million pages of documents. Most transparent in history. No Collusion, No Obstruction. Witch Hunt!”
This is actually the kind of “everything is fine, it’s okay that my house is on fire, I think fire is pretty” response that a politician might normally invoke in this kind of no-win situation. But it’s never the kind of response that Donald Trump invokes. So what’s different here? Numerous former Trump advisers have sold him out to Mueller. But in this instance a current Trump adviser has sold him out.
Don McGahn is still the White House Counsel. He’s given Robert Mueller the kinds of documents and testimony necessary to nail Donald Trump for obstruction of justice and worse. Trump doesn’t appear to know what to do. Why didn’t he simply fire McGahn today in a ball of rage, and falsely accuse him of being the Hamburglar? Trump seems afraid of what to do here, perhaps fearing that McGahn will sell him out even more thoroughly if he fires him. For the moment at least, Trump is paralyzed with fear.
