GOP insider: paranoid Donald Trump trying to fire everyone because he thinks they’re plotting 25th Amendment
Yesterday I laid out why the sheer size of Donald Trump’s attempted staff and cabinet shakeup could only logically point to an attempt on his part at changing the math behind the 25th Amendment (link). I suggested that Trump is making paranoid moves because he thinks his own people are plotting against him, whether they really are or not. Now it turns out a Republican insider has the same view.
Today, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich posted a conversation he had with an unnamed friend whom he describes as a former Republican member of Congress. This individual, who is still presumably well connected to the current Republicans in Congress, says that Donald Trump is in the process of unwittingly getting himself ousted through sheer paranoia: “The way I hear it, he thinks they’ve been plotting against him.” When asked for clarification, he stated “Twenty-fifth amendment!” before adding “Trump thinks they’ve been preparing a palace coup. So one by one, he’s firing them.”
The GOP insider continued: “It’s ludicrous. Sessions is a loyal lapdog. Tillerson doesn’t know where the bathroom is. That’s my point. Trump is fritzing out. Having manic delusions. He’s actually going nuts … How long do you think it will be before everyone in Washington knows he’s flipping out? I don’t mean just weird. I mean really off his rocker … They don’t have to plot against him. It will be obvious to everyone that he’s got to go. That’s where the twenty-fifth amendment really does comes in.”
Although White House staffers like Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer don’t get to vote on the 25th Amendment, they could use their influence and first-hand experiences to convince cabinet members that Donald Trump is dangerously unfit. Ironically, they can still do that, and may now be more motivated to do so, because they’ve been fired. Sessions and Tillerson do get to vote on the 25th Amendment. And for that matter, so did John Kelly, until Trump took his out of the cabinet this week by making him the Chief of Staff.
