Trump lashes out as pressure builds
‘‘Get ready Russia, because [missiles] will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’. You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal.’’ Donald Trump
UNITED STATES: The Russia collusion probe. The Stormy Daniels allegations. The escalating tension with Moscow.
The tempests that have separately buffeted the White House for months have merged into a maelstrom this week and threaten to engulf President Donald Trump, who yesterday railed against members of the Justice Department by name and took to Twitter to threaten military strikes in Syria and taunt a nuclear-armed power.
While alarmed aides and allies worried that Trump was the angriest he’d ever been, the president saw conspiracies in the challenges facing his administration and hinted at more chaos. And as Trump’s party was rocked by upheaval on Capitol Hill, White House staffers explored whether he has the legal authority to fire the men leading the investigation into his administration and, as underscored by the seizure of documents from his private lawyer, his business and personal life.
‘‘Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama,’’ Trump tweeted. ‘‘Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!’’
That message followed another provocative tweet, in which Trump laid into Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-assad, whose government is accused of launching an apparent chemical weapons attack on its own people. Disregarding his own insistence that he would never tip his hand to military strategy, he seemed to suggest that he would launch air strikes.
‘‘Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’,’’ Trump wrote. ‘‘You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!’’
The president’s renewed public anger at special counsel Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein was prompted by the FBI raid on his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who has acknowledged paying US$130,000 to Daniels, a porn actress, to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump.
The president has warned that an investigation into his business would cross ‘‘a red line’’ and could lead him to fire Mueller, despite strong pushback from a number of aides and Republicans in Congress.
‘‘It worries me because I realise how much he feels personally cheated and how much it feels like it’s a personal witch hunt. And he’s not the kind of guy that takes that lying down. He fights back,’’ said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and an informal Trump adviser. ‘‘I think Trump doesn’t know how to deal with it and is very frustrated by it, thinks it’s totally unfair. And that’s what you’re seeing.’’
A number of those close to Trump say they worry about his reaction – and the West Wing’s lack of planning – to yet another storm on the horizon: the release of former FBI director James Comey’s new book. This has led Trump to angrily surmise that Comey is ‘‘going to lie’’ and try to ‘‘make money’’ by tarnishing the president’s reputation, according to two aides not authorised to speak publicly.
While a number of allies believe Trump’s talk on Mueller and Rosenstein was largely venting, they have acknowledged that he is increasingly unpredictable. White House lawyers have been considering Trump’s authority to circumvent Department of Justice regulations and unilaterally fire Mueller. Bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel was introduced yesterday.
White House aides are also worried by the surprise announcement from House Speaker Paul Ryan that he will leave Congress at the end of the year. The move has been interpreted by some as an acknowledgement of the rising likelihood that Democrats could gain control of the House later this year, imperilling Trump’s agenda and potentially sparking talk of impeachment.