Desperate to distract from Russia collusion bombshell, Donald Trump continues Morning Joe feud

| 12:17 pm EDT June 30, 2017
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The most intriguing cat and mouse games tend to be the ones that play out in wide open spaces. After a week’s worth of signs that proof of collusion between the Donald Trump and Russia was about to hit the news wires, Trump launched a deranged attack on Morning Joe co-host Mike Brzezinski yesterday, in a sign that he believed the bombshell was going to drop last night. It didn’t, but that only led Trump to double down on his attempt at a distraction this morning.

There’s to other logical way to frame Trump’s behavior. He’s long had a love-hate relationship with Joe Scarborough and a hate-hate relationship with Brzezinski. But Mika has been consistently criticizing him on-air for months, and there was no particular reason for Trump to lash out at her out of nowhere yesterday. Instead, Trump knew that something else was about to hit the news, and he was trying to split the news cycle by creating the kind of controversy that he gets away with because it’s expected of him.

Consider the signs that everyone involved knows the Trump-Russia collusion bombshell is coming: Donald Trump has spent the past week preemptively defending himself against that collusion, blaming President Obama for it, and even bizarrely asserting that there are no collusion “tapes.” Russia has swiftly gotten its Ambassador, who is suspected of having been a core part of that collusion, out of the United States. Paul Manafort, who had been stalling for quite some time, suddenly registered as a foreign agent.

These Trump-Russia players all know the collusion bombshell is imminent, and they’re all positioning themselves for its arrival. Donald Trump gambled yesterday that the bombshell would hit the wires last night, and he went ahead and created his most deranged distraction to date. Today he doubled down on that bet by extending his Morning Joe headlines for another day. That means he’s now betting that the Russia collusion bombshell will land tonight. Stay tuned. If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report.