The real reason Donald Trump and his people are suddenly throwing Mark Meadows under the bus today
Donald Trump’s people are now telling Rolling Stone they expect Mark Meadows will be indicted. They’re clearly trying to make Meadows the fall guy. But why push this now? Meadows has (supposedly) remained loyal to Trump all this time. Why risk pushing him over the edge into cooperating?
A few possibilities come to mind. One is sheer reckless desperation. Trump and his people think this is the end of the rope for them, and since Meadows has been thoroughly incriminated in these hearings, he’s the only one they can try to pin it on, consequences be damned.
Another possibility is they know or think that Meadows has flipped or is going to flip. Just who did Trump try to call after Hutchinson’s testimony? If he tried to call Meadows, and Meadows reported Trump for trying to tamper with him, Trump would see that a declaration of war.
Of course we don’t know who Trump tried to call last week. It’s someone important enough for Trump to risk tampering with, but someone who has not yet appeared in any of these hearings. Meadows fits the description. But often, it turns out to be someone you’ve never heard of.
In any case, even if Trump tried to tamper with him and it was the last straw, it’s difficult to imagine Meadows cooperating with the committee without also cutting a deal with the DOJ. And if he has a deal with the DOJ, would it want him testifying publicly right now?
Again, there’s a strong chance the tampered witness is not Meadows, and is instead some other Trump White House insider without a household name. But something has happened to prompt Trump and his people to suddenly and publicly throw Meadows under the legal bus.
Particularly odd is how Trump’s people didn’t just try to pin Meadows as the fall guy, they went on and on to a reporter about how Meadows is a two faced backstabber. This seems very personal and emotional, rather than just transactional scapegoating.
It’s also possible that Trump’s people who leaked this about Meadows aren’t really speaking for Trump, and are leaking this as part of an attempt at convincing Trump to scapegoat Meadows.
Keep in mind that in his recent public appearances, Donald Trump has come off as more confused and out of it than ever. The “statements” released in his name are clearly being ghostwritten by other people. And Trump’s decision to grant Steve Bannon’s request to waive executive privilege, reportedly against the advice of his own advisers, suggests that Trump is now senile enough to have become a pushover who just goes with whatever the last person in the room tells him to do.
So it does raise the question of whether Trump’s remaining handlers are indeed using the media to try to convince Trump that he now has to scapegoat Mark Meadows in order to save himself. It’s probably a terrible idea for Trump to sell out Meadows, given that it could prompt Meadows to flip on him – which would probably be the single biggest development that could cement Trump’s fate at trial.
Perhaps Trump’s people figure that if they can get Trump and Meadows to go to war with each other, then it’ll be Trump and Meadows who go to prison, and the rest of them will get away with it all? That’s not how anything works, but desperation breeds delusion. In any case, we will all find out in eight days who Trump was trying and failing to tamper with – unless it leaks out sooner.
