President back to outspoken best at home and abroad

AFTER staying quiet while sacked FBI chief James Comey was testifying, President Donald Trump yesterday got back to business with a series of high stakes comments about world politics and his domestic woes.

After telling reporters at the White House that he would tell them about the mysterious ‘‘tapes’’ of his conversation with Comey ‘‘in the very near future’’ – Constitution and its laws.

Trump wanted the former. Comey detailed an awkward dinner in the White House in January, just the two of them, where Trump asked for ‘‘loyalty’’ and Comey offered ‘‘honesty’’. Comey detailed a private meeting in the Oval Office in February in which Trump asked Comey to stop the FBI’s investigation into General Michael Flynn. After dispatching everyone from the room, including Comey’s superior, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump allegedly said ‘‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’’ Comey did not let the probe go. Comey recounted that Trump, in an April phone adding that the reporters would be left ‘‘disappointed’’ – he also took the time yesterday to recommit his allegiance to Nato and blast Qatar for the ‘‘high level’’ sponsoring terrorism. call, asked Comey about getting word out that Trump was not under investigation at the time (a fact Comey confirmed this week). Trump reminded Comey that the president had been very loyal to him, and ‘‘we had that thing you know.’’

Trump got the latter: an FBI director aghast at the president’s lack of knowledge or respect for official channels and the independence of the FBI. An FBI director concerned by the presidents’ overtures seeking loyalty, and point-blank request to let an official investigation go. Comey was so disturbed (his word), he was prompted to write contemporaneous memos of every single interaction he had with Trump. And because, in Comey’s