There are times when the inner workings of the White House can feel inscrutable to outsiders. And then there are other times when the plot becomes extremely clear. Right now falls into the second category. Lots and lots of reporters are conveying extremely ominous messages about Donald Trump’s intention to fire Rod Rosenstein and clamp down on the Mueller investigation:
1. A source familiar with the president’s thinking tells Gloria Borger that Trump is “pissed, flailing and upset… More upset than ever… His anger is beyond what anyone can imagine.”
(We can imagine a lot.)
2. Two people who spoke with Trump tell the Wall Street Journal they believe “it’s a matter of when, not if,” Trump fired Rosenstein. “Eventually, it will happen,” the second source adds.
3. Axios’s Jonathan Swan reports, “Trump has wanted to fire Rosenstein for a long time … he has a lot of friends outside of the White House — not Bannon — telling him to get rid of Rosenstein.”
4. A former White House official tells Politico, “It’s almost like Comey wrote some of the stuff in the book just to get under Trump’s skin and goad him into saying something outrageous. With the salacious stuff that came out Thursday night, the possibility of Trump exploding has gone up.”
5. Rosenstein himself “seemed fully aware he may soon lose his job and was at peace with the possibility,” according to colleagues, who note that he has been repeating the phrase, “Here I stand.”
No info about whether he has picked out a fancy suit, made a sudden and large charitable donation, or told his family that he loves them very much.
