Trump’s travails teeter toward panic
So, is this what the early – or, perhaps, middle – stages of panic look like? The ever-perplexing behaviour of U.S. President Donald Trump made a subtle shift from erratic to frantic last week, as the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as the Trump campaign’s possible links to it, took an apparent turn toward the president’s personal and business activities.
In the span of just 48 hours, from Wednesday into Friday, the New York Times and Washington Post reported that Trump had issued a veiled threat about the scope of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, inquired to White House staff about his latitude for issuing pardons to his staff, his relatives and himself, and publicly lambasted his hand-picked attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for having recused himself from the Russian investigation and therefore allowing the election-meddling probe to proceed.
At the same time, the Times reported that members of the Trump administration were digging through the personal and professional backgrounds of investigators hired by Mr. Mueller, looking for information, such as perceived conflicts of interest, that could be used in an effort to discredit the results of their investigation. Desperate times. Desperate measures. Coming on the heels of previous revelations about a meeting involving Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law/ adviser Jared Kushner, former campaign chair Paul Manafort and Russian-connected officials (first one, then two, then three and then four Russians, according to mutating versions of the story), these latest Trumppresidency travails suggest a commander-in-chief who is so fully on the defensive about his personal entanglements that he has lost the ability and will to govern.
It was supposed to be the week Republicans celebrated their long-desired and loudly promised repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act – also derisively known as Obamacare – but the party that controls both houses of the U.S. Congress and the White House was again, for the third time, unable to muster the necessary votes.
In the aftermath of that fiasco, many observers pointed to Mr. Trump’s failure to rally the party behind repeal/replace as a key factor in its triple-miss meltdown.
The president’s attention, they complained, was focused elsewhere and his interest in the health-care file was at best middling.
It was also supposed to be “Made in America” week, with the president showcasing his push to return America to greatness by bringing jobs and production back home. The clumsy photo-op arranged to mark the occasion was quickly undermined by reminders that most of Trump’s own branded products are made overseas, and that his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida has applied for permission to hire 70 foreign workers this fall.
Controversy and contradiction don’t just follow Trump; he invites, invents and incites them on a daily basis. But there was something different about POTUS’s antics toward week’s end.
The edge seems to have come off the I’m-in-charge belligerence, and the anger that usually drives his antimedia tirades has been enveloped by a whiff of dread.
Observers of U.S. politics are almost unanimous in the view that Mr. Mueller – a decorated war hero and career investigator whose appointment received bipartisan praise – will not be deterred by Trump’s latest brushback attempts.
The investigation will continue, and more will be revealed. If Mr. Trump has things to hide – and the accumulating evidence suggests he does – the shift from erratic to frantic might just be a logical next step on the way to full-fledged presidential panic.