Donald Trump’s team turns against itself as three of his campaign advisers call for each other to go to prison
You know Donald Trump’s Russia scandal is looking bad for him when his own campaign advisers begin turning against each other in an attempt to insulate themselves from the fallout. You know the scandal has become downright catastrophic, with everyone involved in pure panic mode, when three of Trump’s most notable campaign advisers are now publicly calling for each other to go to prison.
The fireworks began when Donald Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, opined that Trump’s second campaign manager Paul Manafort and friendly adviser Roger Stone should go to prison for the rest of their lives if their collusive roles in the Russia scandal are proven to be what they now appear to be (link). That prompted Roger Stone to turn around and call for Lewandowski to go to prison for the rest of his life (link). This makes for the kind of mutual scapegoating not seen since the latter stages of the Watergate scandal – which resulted in a number of Richard Nixon’s advisers actually going to prison.
This kind of open rhetoric among Trump’s campaign advisers tells us two things. The first is that they’re engulfed in sheer panic, hoping to make themselves look innocent by calling for their own former colleagues to be imprisoned. The second is that, when things inevitably reach the stage where these advisers are having to cut deals and testify against each other, there’s enough mutual antipathy within the top ranks that they will in fact be willing to take each other down. This is also particularly bad news for Donald Trump himself.
Once these advisers begin to flip on each other, partially to protect themselves and partially out of spite for each other, they’ll be required to do something else in order to get their deals: they’ll have to flip on Trump as well. Some of these guys are so eager to throw each other under the bus, they’ll be willing to make room under that bus for Trump as well.
