TRUMP'S PEOPLE HAVE SAVED HIM FROM HIMSELF

…The former White House Lawyer, Don McGahn & President Trump

Trump has proven that he truly has a “Mob-Boss” mentality

When asked by a reporter about his people disobeying him, Trump stated that “My people don’t disobey me!”

The following is an expansion of an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, a conservative paper owned by the head of the FOX Network, Rupert Murdoch.

Trump’s statement was a reaction to the details in the Mueller Report released last week.  A complete report which provided those painstaking details about Trump's efforts to remove Robert Mueller as special counsel.  It also showed how Trump seriously tried to narrow the scope of Mueller's investigation and how a number of Trump’s people disobeyed his orders.

Trump’s mob-boss statement was very much in keeping with his “I'm-a-tough-guy-and-no-one-crosses-me-and-gets-away-with-it!” attitude.

But it was also supporting another common Trump trait: It, like many things Trump says, it is absolutely and totally false!

As Robert Mueller wrote in his report:

"The president's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

Below, a list of just some of the known instances in which Trump's staff disobeyed a direct or indirect order from the President.

1. White House counsel Don McGahn refused to fire Mueller.

2. Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to un-recuse himself in the Russia investigation.  (BTW: It’s not possible to “un-recuse” once you have recused.)

3. Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski refused to tell Sessions to tell Mueller to limit the scope of his inquiry to only future election interference

4. FBI Director James Comey didn’t see a way to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn

5. Department of Homeland Security boss Kirstjen Nielsen Refused to close the southern border.

6. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson refused a litany of Trump's requests; "Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can't do it that way," Tillerson later recounted. "It violates the law."

7. Staff secretary Rob Porter refused to reach out to Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand to see if she was sufficiently on "Team Trump" and, if so, would she be interested in overseeing the special counsel investigation

8. McGahn refused to go back on his story that Trump had asked him to remove Mueller -- and refused to write a letter for the White House with such a denial.

9. Defense Secretary James Mattis refused Trump's exhortation to back the withdrawal of American troops from Syria. Mattis resigned instead.

10. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel refused Trump’s order to bus undocumented immigrants detained at the border to sanctuary cities in Democratic-held congressional districts.

11. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refused Trump’s request to state publicly that his memo was the impetus for Comey's removal

12. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus refused Trump’s order to find a way to fire Sessions

13. Deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland refused to write s memo making it clear that Trump had not told Flynn to discuss sanctions with the Russians prior to coming into office.

This is, of course, not a complete list. Rather, it's more of a focused list. But you get the point: Trump's claim about people never disobeying orders is, on its face, not just false, but is ridiculous!

This totally twisted logic seems a perfect fit for the Trump administration.  You can make a very strong case that Trump's current presidency was saved by the fact that so many of his advisers, most notably McGahn, were willing to disobey him to save him.

But the WSJ didn’t stop by saying that some people did disobey the boss.

The Wall Street Journal denounced this Republican in the searing editorial saying that if he doesn’t change his behavior by Labor Day, the GOP should dump him as a nominee.  “He needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be president, or to turn the nomination over to Mike Pence.”  This was the WSJ editorial board's exact statement.

This editorial is so significant because the WSJ editorial board is one of the most respected conservative voices in the media and it holds a major influence on Wall Street and beyond.

The editorial board also ripped Trump for being outspent, losing in every key battleground state poll, alienating his party and they said Trump, “isn’t running a competent campaign”.

The WSJ column concludes: “If they can’t get Mr. Trump to change his act by Labor Day, the GOP will have no choice but to write off the nominee as hopeless and focus on salvaging the Senate and House and other down-ballot races.”

Let’s face it, had Don McGahn carried out Trump's order to fire Mueller, we would be talking about a very different presidency right now, and for sure the Democrats would be going full-steam for Trump’s impeachment.

Copyright G. Ater 2019