Donald Trump’s revealing Twitter rant about Paul Manafort is blowing up in his face
This weekend Donald Trump decided that he needed to jump on Twitter and suddenly distance himself from his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a guy who had not been in the headlines for quite awhile. It gave away that something ugly about Manafort was about to publicly surface. It also gave away that whatever it was, Trump knew what was coming. It’s a tweet that Trump is probably already wishing he could take back.
The problem is that this Manafort story didn’t come from the media. News outlets often call the White House and ask Donald Trump if he wants to provide comment for their story just before they publish it, thus tipping him off to what’s coming. It’s why he’s sometimes able to create well timed distractions just before these stories get published. But this is different. Robert Mueller initiated the Manafort witness tampering bombshell when he filed court papers on Monday. How could Trump have known a full day earlier that this was coming? Therein lies the problem.
When Trump posted his Twitter rant about Manafort, we didn’t spot any major news outlets pointing out that Trump had rather clearly tipped off that he knew a Manafort bombshell was coming. But once that bombshell landed, the New Yorker was willing to point out that this didn’t seem like a coincidence. When these things are so blatant that even the ever-cautious mainstream media is willing to connect the dots, it’s a sign that Trump was far too blatant about it. More importantly, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden seized the opportunity to go on CNN and point out that Manafort’s brazen actions suggest he was promised something by Trump in return for his silence.
Ron Wyden sits on the Senate Intel Committee, which is playing a crucial role in the Trump-Russia investigation. If he’s noticed that Donald Trump protested too much about Paul Manafort at just the right time, then so has Robert Mueller. You can bet that Mueller is already investigating how Trump learned in advance that Manafort was about to get nailed for witness tampering, and what role Trump played in it. Trump’s tweet may have just added another felony count to his inevitable indictment, and helped Mueller in his effort to force Manafort to flip on Trump.
