Trump, July 2017: Tweet more

Jesus Christ. You don't need Obamacare to fail to win support for single payer. That's a dumbass idea from the Jill Stein wing of the hospital. Please to never imply that it has any basis in reality.

The electorate supports single payer. The electorate likes Medicare for all. As far as I can tell, the barrier is that the donor and pundit classes think it's impossible, and so that has become conventional wisdom.

Fun morning already.

Anthony Scaramucci just told Hugh Hewitt that it's pretty apparent that Trump wants Sessions gone.

— Duane Patterson (@Radioblogger) July 25, 2017

Hugh's question back was, "So why doesn't Trump just fire him, because this can't continue?" Scaramucci's response? "Trump has a style"

— Duane Patterson (@Radioblogger) July 25, 2017

I asked two ppl close to Trump why he is tormenting Sessions instead of firing him. The answer from both, paraphrased: Because he can.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 25, 2017

Erickson's been useful today already; he has his contacts, and one of them is an unnamed Cabinet secretary (I assume either Price or Perdue given the Georgia connection, but it's unclear):

http://theresurgent.com/cabinet-level-revolt-over-trumps-treatment-of-jeff-sessions/

“If he can get treated that way, what about the rest of us?” one of the President’s Cabinet secretaries asked me with both shock and anger in his voice....In fact, the Cabinet secretary I talked to raised the issue of the White House staff vetoes over loyalty, blasting the White House staff for blocking qualified people of like mind because they were not pro-Trump and now the President is ready to fire the most loyal of all the Cabinet members. “It’s more of a clusterf**k than you even know,” the Cabinet secretary tells me about dealing with the White House on policy. It is not just Tillerson ready to bail.

The conclusion of a separate piece:

http://theresurgent.com/why-the-presidents-treatment-of-jeff-sessions-is-generating-such-a-strong-internal-reaction/

So you’ve got all these people who signed up to work for a demanding President in awful conditions while being piled on from the outside and they all see the most loyal Cabinet secretary getting thrown under the bus by the President.

They now realize there will be no two way loyalty. The President demands loyalty, but shows no loyalty. These guys were hoping he could at least be helpful when they need a new job at the end of the administration. Now they wonder if the President will even remember who they are. They expect that one mistake will get them savaged on Twitter by the President....

Behind the scenes, both Cabinet secretaries and their staffs have terrible stories of treatment by B-list White House staff. They do not feel any more valued than low level staff. On top of that, the White House is running purity tests on potential staff picks, which is slowing down the job, making things more difficult, and is increasingly ironic given the President’s lack of loyalty to others.

Which, yeah, utterly unsurprising, but now that they've been burned...

I was just reminded by CNN that Rick Perry's in the cabinet, then remembered that Ben Carson's still there too. Keeping a low profile, both of them. Staying the course.

The secretary whose thoughts I'd give to know right about now would be Elaine Chao's.

When Mr. Obama took office, some liberal supporters urged him to investigate Mr. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and members of their administration over allegations of torture or war crimes. He rejected that out of hand and even dismissed less incendiary suggestions to establish a commission to examine the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“He concluded that there was no way such a commission could exist without people concluding that the Obama administration was investigating the Bush administration,” said Gregory B. Craig, Mr. Obama’s White House counsel at the time. “There was no way,” he said, “to avoid people thinking that Obama was going after Bush. He thought that was bad for the country and declined to do it.”

Jesus, what a little cuck.

'bad for the country' lmao

Cabinet members threatening to one day maybe quit is as lame as Trump's twitter badgering. Just quit, cowards. You want to make a point? Everyone quit at once. No? Then shut up. You took this job working for a venal lunatic, what did you expect?

Obama, takes a licking, keeps on ... taking a licking.

It's called the high road!

There isn't a violin tiny enough for these venal dipshits.

I do appreciate seeing Good Ol' Hugh Hewitt having to twist around in the wind like that. A slew of movement/social conservative types are nearly spitting blood re how Sessions is getting dumped on.

Hewitt was unbearable during the election--in some ways even more so than Conway or Jeffrey Lord, because there was the pretense he was providing analysis.

Honestly I still have my problems with this and with kinda glib 'oh he's clearly got dementia' sentiments, but still, worth noting.

WOW https://t.co/4qizPbE5Oy

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 25, 2017

(To be clear, this isn't the APA saying this. That would REALLY be news.)

do we think Trump has read Jeet Heer's piece on dominance politics and is now consciously putting into practice what had previously been instinct

I do think he read it and then had a long discussion about it with colleagues over espresso and biscotti, making salient arguments punctuated with his trademark bon mots, before eventually coming to a nuanced decision about the matter.

Or he's an unhinged caveman bully doing what unhinged caveman bullies do.

do we think Trump has read Jeet Heer's piece on dominance politics and is now consciously putting into practice what had previously been instinct

No, because that implies consciousness.

Ha Ned I scanned the article as saying the APA was supporting this and I was whut?!

I think one of the things that has most confounded people about Trump's behavior is that we expect people to behave in a way that favors their best interests, but this is a man who might literally cut off his nose to spite his face if Sean Hannity suggested something untoward about his face.

xxp Heh, be that as it may, if Jeet Heer's analysis is anywhere near on point, Trump has probably played a masterstroke by doing a great big baboon shit on Sessions in public, and making him eat it

Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS! The E.U. is very protectionist with the U.S. STOP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017

Trade deal with a unified group of nearly 30 countries...nah, fuck that, I'm going with a trade deal with one tiny, rapidly declining island nation.

Which is a fairly on-the-nose demonstration of my last post.

This NRO bit from McCarthy the other day is rather too long, granted, but I found it interesting because it's an attempt to try and piece together the timeline over the past few months:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449743/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-president-blame-mueller-affair

It's still NRO and McCarthy, of course, so tread warily, and so much of it feels like Monday morning quarterbacking. But a key thread is that a combination of impulsive decisions, attempts to cover one's back and more on the part of everyone involved -- Trump, Sessions, Comey, Rosenstein -- led to the current state of things, and that certainly makes basic sense from here.

Ah, the Terminator

SCOOP: Scaramucci to oust White House press aide Michael Short, offers ‘amnesty’ to others https://t.co/kQtNvlexDJ via @politico

— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) July 25, 2017

Scaramucci plans to purge Reince loyalists. The list of those likely to lose their jobs is heavy w RNC folks. https://t.co/atAlTzXex2 pic.twitter.com/WzyWGMNkX1

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) July 25, 2017

uh what "image" does Priebus have except "shell-less snail'

This is going to end with Trump and the like three remaining people in his administration chasing one another around the WH in loincloths and trying to spear one another to death while Bannon's head slowly decomposes on a pike in the Oval Office.

great! how can we hasten that?

This Sessions thing is obviously to set up a "I just like to be a dick and fire people" defense for the Comey matter.

tbf that was his election platform

So noble!

Talking to Sessions allies this AM, all same advice: Do not resign. Too much at stake, for conservative DOJ agenda, also for Russia probe.

— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 25, 2017

"also for Russia probe"?

slip of the tongue, they meant "also for coverup"

lol he's going to eat the shit

Light Comedy:

After 9 years of hating Donald J Trump, telling him "lol no one likes you" was the straw pic.twitter.com/MhZ6bXT1Dp

— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 25, 2017

Hard to keep up. Wanted to post about a Trump press conference at 3:00 today, CNN says Manafort has been subpoenaed by the Senate to testify publicly.

I guess John McCain wants to be sure that, on his life's final scoreboard, he's killed more Americans than Vietnamese

— Jon Schwarz (@tinyrevolution) July 25, 2017

VC flipped him it's been a long game for the past 40 years

> Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS!

just how big is the chlorine-washed-chicken market?

( https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/24/us-chlorinated-chicken-not-ruled-out-by-no-10-in-pursuit-of-trade-deals )

this Trump v Sessions thing is feeling a lot like Mayweather/MacGregor to me. who do you root for here.

xxp The Oldmanchurian Candidate

Lindsey Graham: "President Trump’s tweet today suggesting Attorney General Sessions pursue prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate."

Trump has been immune to so much the past 18 months, but maybe the Senate's clubbiness will be...I've got to say it, I need the words...A BRIDGE TOO FAR!

when's the health care vote?

Senate doesn't convene til noon ET

Any word yet on, y'know, what they'll actually be voting on?

whether to continue being terrible people

killing us all

How terrible to be, how many to kill. To expand the politics of the possibility

NEWS: Vote plan as of now per 2 sources with @VaughnHillyard that ends with "skinny" repeal pic.twitter.com/aYqmB9F8iv

— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) July 25, 2017