Donald J. Trump faces his greatest challenge in his seventy year life. He has taken on the whole judicial infrastructure of the Republic of the United States. He has ridden roughshod over the basis of the American Constitution by ignoring the principle of separation of powers.
The reason for Trump's worsening outlandish behavior is that the Special Counsel’s Investigation is slowly and steadily peeling away layers to become closer and closer to him and his family. The Republican Party is disintegrating before his eyes and there is a strong possibility that the Democrats will take over the House invoking the possibility of impeachment. Then the former leaders of the staid Intelligence Establishment, have publicly denounced him and confirmed that the Russians backed him. The former Director of National Intelligence went as far as to claim that without the Russians Trump would not be President of the United States.
Nobody but nobody can deny Donald Trump’s survival instincts. He is fighting for his life as the walls close in on him. He has long ago reckoned that he cannot win this battle legally and has been fighting it in the political arena. The latter tactic has not stopped Special Counsel Mueller from piling on the pressure. Trump and his new “T V lawyer”, Rudy Giuliani are verging on the unthinkable - instruct the Justice Department to stop the investigation. Giuliani has unashamedly stated that his motivation of delegitimizing the Mueller enquiry is to avoid impeachment. A line in the sand has already been crossed with the Justice Department being pressured to reveal classified information in the midst of a counter intelligence investigation.
THE TRUMP RESUME AND THE GENESIS OF HIS CRISIS
It hasn’t ever been plain sailing for The Don with the result that he has become unstuck again and again. To his credit, (?), he has always found a way to endure. In the beginning his father’s money was his protecsia. Then the fact that he was worth far more to creditors not to bankrupt him allowed him to keep afloat once more. Then there was the sensational TV reality show where he did what he did best - fire people. At that skill he was a rock star while at the same time leading everyone to believe that everything he touched turned to gold. The franchising that followed saw him resurface big time.
Most recently, with the emergence of the Russian oligarchy, as his son has pointed out, most of his real estate business has been conducted with Russia. These ostensibly have been the good years for the huckster, who by his own admission “loves debt”, (and not paying debts either), as he has been able to buy four hundred million dollars worth of property with cash. Where this all comes nobody knows and if he has his way they will never know as his income tax returns are under continuous life long audit.
For whatever reason he decided to stand for the Presidency and winner that he is, he won against all odds. The problem that has arisen is that the Intelligence and Security Establishment found that he had unseen illegal partners in that endeavor - “The Russia Thing”. Used to blowing away all opposition he fired the FBI Director, Comey, who was in charge of the “Russia Thing” enquiry. As he told the Russian Ambassador that by firing that “Nut job, Comey, it had relieved great pressure”. He was after all the boss and the FBI Director was a “lying, (everyone knows he is a liar, you know that and I know that), blowhard”. To his chagrin another flunky, Rod Rosenstein, who was supposed to be working for him, appointed a Special Counsel to continue the investigation. Rosenstein added insult to injury including in the mandate an injunction to examine whether the POTUS had obstructed justice in his dismissal of Comey. Justice Secretary Sessons, who he had appointed to oversea all of this and to look after him just like Eric Holder had covered Obama’s back, recused himself. As he has told anyone who would listen - he would never have appointed Sessons had he been informed of that recusal upfront.
He was on his own like he always had been and he could take anyone on. He would win.
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY
From the get go they called him out on everything he said. He was not used to this. They argued with him that he hadn’t achieved the greatest victory ever for a Republican President. They contested the fact that at his inauguration there had been the largest crowd ever. There were sniggers when he claimed that no other President had achieved as much he had in his first year. But what really bugged him was that the investigation into that “Russia Thing was growing out of hand. It had been one “thing” after another.
He believed he has been playing it according to his well known playbook by attacking the Investigation and the investigators. It was a “Witch hunt”, a “hoax”. “There was no collusion or obstruction”. "It was part of the Dark State to unseat him". "It was cooked up by the Democrats as they had lost an election they should have won”. He clutched at every straw and prefabricated up the ying yang - Obama had wire tapped his campaign to most recently the FBI had spied on his campaign - “Spygate”. He claimed that “Spygate” would turn out to be the biggest political scandal since “Watergate”.
What really angered him most was that he didn’t get the full support of the Republican Congress. The fact that the Democrats claimed that they were letting him get away with murder was no consolation. He expected blind loyalty and obedience. He was after all their leader. From his paranoid world he would argue that the GOP legislators were there when they needed him to pass the tax bill but when it came to backing him up on the axing the Investigation they were unsupportive. As of this moment Speaker Ryan has no control of the House having lost a crucial Farm Bill with 30 Republicans defecting.
Even worse the majority of Reoublican lamely whimp that the Investigation must proceed. A few of them even threatened that if he interfered it could be the end of his Presidency. In private they warned him outright that if he axed Mueller they could not defend him. There was however a small group of Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee who were patriots. They concluded that there was no evidence that the Russians interfered in the election while everyone was arguing that the Trump campaign had colluded with them. They were investigating the investigators and he would help them where he could.
THE INVESTIGATION PRESSURE GROWS AND GROWS
Every other day there had been a new revelation about Russia, Wikileaks, meetings, links between Russian oligarchs and the like. Suspicious meetings that Donald Junior and Cohen had attended with foreign agents were almost a daily fair. What was most off putting was the arrests, indictments and the announcements of former campaign members that they were cooperating with Mueller. His former Assistant Campaign Manager, his National Security Advisor, and a Foreign Affairs Advisor were all cooperating with the Special Counsel. The only holdout had been his former Campaign Manager who they threw new charges at every other day. Manafort’s son in law was now also aiding Mueller following a plea deal. (Trump has not commented on the story that his former lawyer Mr. Dowd spoke to the lawyers of Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort in connection with pardoning them.)
El Presidente was catatonic at the raid on his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen. The Commander in Chief pleaded with the Judge to allow his counsel to view the tons of documents and electronic material that was seized from his Consiglieri. Everyday one thing was leading to another. Cohen obviously bungled the Stormy Daniels deal with the result that her lawyer Michael Avignati was on every TV channel, except Fox, making more and more revelations. Just in case this wasn’t bad enough Cohen’s partner in the Taxi medallion business, Evgeny Friedman, copped a nominal plea in return for cooperation with both the Feds and the State. They could have put him away for the rest of his life and his plea deal involved no jail time.The fact that he was charged in the New York State Court where the President has no pardon powers had to be obvious to Cohen, putting even more pressure on him.
Cohen embarrassed the POTUS’S TV mouthpiece Sean Hannity who had to argue like mad that Cohen wasn’t really his lawyer. Michael, the bull in a China shop’s, third client was Elliot Broidy for whom he had bought the silence of a Playmate for well over a million dollars. Now the stories are that Elliot took the fall forThe Don. Broidy, a shady yet highly influential figure, contracted with the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to get the Trump administration to punish Qatar which they duly did. Broidy a film director, then received massive defense contracts from those countries. Broidy’s partner, George Nader, was also involved in some hairy discussions that involved Erik Prins of the notorious Seychelles meeting and others. Nader is, guess what, cooperating with Mueller and is the only witness thus far to get full immunity.
Some ominous verbiage buried in a Mueller submission to the court in a case involving the media’s demand for documents foretold that worse was to come. The Special Counsel argued, “ ..because there is so much that is still unresolved in this case, details cannot be shared, and certainly not with a subject to this investigation, his legal team and his political acolytes”. This has to have sent more shudders down the spine of the Trump team.
THE FORMER INTELLIGENCE HEADS MIX IN
If Comey and his record selling expose was not enough to challenge the actions of the President and his entourage, he was followed by a string of high ranking intelligence personnel. Firstly, the former CIA director John Brennan has been weighing in. He was soon to be followed by James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, who wrote a stunning memoir entitled Facts and Fears. This publication followed the former National Security Advisor and CIA Director Michael Hayden’s book, Assault on Intelligence - American National Security in an Age of Lies.
Comey, while still more believed than the President, has not the gravitas of Brennan, Hayden and Clapper, all long standing respected and highly knowledgeable Republican public servants who usually shun the public limelight. The enormity of these Public Servants’ statements has not sunk in. They are not political commentators. They were in charge of America’s security while the Russian intervention was taking place. In the long run their biggest political impact may be with the Republican legislators.
John Brennan attacked the Commander in Chief’s competence and value system, “Trump is just unprepared for the challenges of leading the country….He is unstable, inept, inexperienced and also unethical. ….. . In a tweet he admonished the POTUS, “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history….you will not destroy America, America will triumph over you”. The former CIA Director has also opined that Russia may well have something over the President.
Michael Hayden’s tones were measured and academic. He critiqued that, “Trump’s predecessors respected the independence and judgements of the bureaucracy. Trump does not. He not only accuses the FBI, Justice Department and other agencies of forming a “deep state”, but also seeks to challenge, disrupt and exert control over them. He has a record of exaggeration, falsehood, misstatement and conspiratorial thinking. Trump just seemed to say whatever came into his head….and the Trump’s administration glandular aversion to even looking squarely, much less mounting a concerted response to it, (the Russian Interference), is an appalling national security lapse”.
James Clapper, besides the usual criticisms finally acknowledged the elephant in the room. Trump was President because of the massive Russian intervention.. “to conclude otherwise, challenges common sense and credulity to the breaking point… Less than eighty thousand votes in three key states swung the election. I have no doubt that more votes than that were influenced ivy this massive effort by the Russians”.
THE LAST STAND
Trump delegitimizing the Special Counsel’s investigation as part of the Dark State to remove him reached a new low when he forced the Justice Department to divulge classified information to Congressmen in relation to his new fiction, “Spygate”. Initially he only wanted two of his GOP allies to be privy but then relented and allowed two meetings, one of which included Democrats. The ostensible purpose was to prove that an FBI informant that had gained information on Trump campaign members, who had been in contact with the Russians, was a spy who had been planted for political reasons. Breaking time honored custom further, Trump had one of his lawyers and Chief of Staff present for part of the meetings.
Needless to say not one of the attendees supported Trump’s contention that the informant was a politically motivated spy. This did not stop his out of control lawyer, Rudy Giuliani from demanding that the content of the briefing be handed over to him. This would help Trump. He believed that if the “Spy” had been put there illegitimately then the Justice Department should close the investigation down. He ranted, “Coupled with Comey’s illegally leaked memos means that the enquiry was a mistake”. On the basis of all this Giuliani would make a formal request to the Justice Department to end the enquiry.
WHERE THIS IS HEADING
Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, who is overseeing the Mueller enquiry has made it quite clear that the Justice Department won’t be pressured. It is obvious that his capitulation to Trump on the spy meeting has not satisfied him. Very soon Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate leader will be faced with the issue he claimed would never happen - the axing of Mueller.
Trump for his part is gambling for his life. He cannot afford this escalating hurricane to continue any longer as the whole House of Cards is on the verge of collapsing. It remains to be seen how the Republicans will react. The POTUS for his part would rather take his chances with a Republican controlled Congress then a Democratic one in November.
If Giuliani continues, and there is no reason to believe he won’t, then it is a question of who in the Justice Department will resign. Ostensibly this gives Trump the opportunity to appoint those who will axe Mueller. The battleground might then become the Senate if he needs to get appointees confirmed.
It is Nixon all over again. The major differences are that Nixon, crook that he was, ultimately accepted the Constitution. He also didn’t have Fox News and nor did he have a Republican controlled Congress.
At the end of the day the bullet is already out of the gun. There are already a ton of indictments. There have to be those that Mueller has ready to shoot to Courts both State and Federal. All the diversions in the world like micromanaging the NFL, calling meetings with Korea on and off will not divert attention from this travesty. (Nixon engineered a diplomatic breakthrough with China and brokered the Vietnam peace).
Donald J. Trump will not emerge from this whole. The problem is the damage he will have done to the essence of America.
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