Donald Trump begins questioning Mike Pence’s loyalty
The surest sign of the impending downfall of a crime organization isn’t when the indictments start pouring in; it’s when the leaders of that organization begin selling each other out, or become so paranoid as to begin questioning each other’s loyalty out loud. That brings us to the latest chapter in the Trump crime organization, and more specifically the saga of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
We all know that there is the very real possibility Donald Trump will be ousted from the presidency, allowing Mike Pence to ascend to the presidency – if perhaps only briefly, before facing his own obstruction of justice scandal. Pence knows he has a shot at inheriting the presidency if he finds a way to help ensure Trump’s downfall. Trump, increasingly addled as his brain may be, appears to have figured this out as well.
Donald Trump is now roaming the White House, asking his various advisers if they think Mike Pence is “loyal” to him, according to a lengthy and eyebrow raising new report from the New York Times. With all due respect to the newspaper, it seems hung up on the theoretical question of whether Trump might keep Pence as his running mate in 2020. But back in the real world, this administration isn’t going to make it to 2020. It’s fairly obvious that Trump’s paranoia toward Pence is based on the possibility that Pence could steal the presidency from him.
Of course for Donald Trump, this just makes things even harder for him. Nearly everyone around him has increasing motivation to sell him out, whether it be Mike Pence eyeing the Oval Office, or his own top advisers trying to figure out how to avoid being indicted for having conspired to help Trump commit obstruction of justice. The odds are fairly strong that some of Trump’s current top people have already secretly cut plea deals or immunity deals against him. And now Trump has finally figured out that he can’t trust his own scheming vice president.
