Donald Trump throws Michael Flynn under the bus

| 4:30 pm EDT May 17, 2019
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Last night Palmer Report explained that Donald Trump had a difficult decision to make. Would he wake up today and finally attack Michael Flynn for the first time? Would he attack the media and claim the story about Flynn flipping on him was false? Would he ignore the whole thing and just pretend it’s all going to magically work out for him? Now Trump has given us that answer.

Although Donald Trump promptly began ranting on Twitter about various insane things at 6:30 this morning, it took him another four hours to finally address the Flynn situation: “It now seems the General Flynn was under investigation long before was common knowledge. It would have been impossible for me to know this but, if that was the case, and with me being one of two people who would become president, why was I not told so that I could make a change?”

This came so late in the morning, and was so carefully worded (“the General Flynn” notwithstanding), we’re almost left to wonder if it was crafted by one of Trump’s handlers. In any case, this tells us how he plans to handle this, at least for the moment. He’s definitely throwing Flynn under the bus, not by attacking him for flipping, but instead by painting him as a criminal who was doing things under Trump’s nose, without Trump’s knowledge. Of course this false claim isn’t going to get him very far.

It’s long been established that Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the Trump White House about Michael Flynn in the very first days of the administration, and that Trump responded by firing Yates. It’s also long been known that President Obama warned Trump about Flynn during their transition meeting. With the increasing likelihood that Flynn will end up publicly testifying before Congress, Trump is going to need a different strategy.