I, nut job

We should note for the record the latest New York Times Trump-bashing leak. It arrives with a twist. This one seems to come — courtesy of “an American official” reading a memo to the Times — from inside the White House itself. Trump is now under attack by his own staff.

Meeting in the Oval Office on May 10 with Russia’s ambassador and foreign minister, President Trump shared his feelings about FBI Director James Comey and the relief achieved by his firing:

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Mr. Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.”

Running down Comey, Trump addresses his Russian interlocutors as though they are his (and our) trusted friends. In my view, there is nothing to be said on Trump’s behalf in his defense. One can infer as much from Sean Spicer’s statement (quoted in the Times article linked above). Good god, man, don’t make it so easy for your opponents.

Andrew McCarthy speaks for me in his denunciation of Trump’s behavior. Andy has a lot to say, all of it compelling. On the elementary level of rational self-interest, this has a certain bite: “[A]ny thinking person would grasp, under the circumstances, that such foolish statements would be leaked and spun as informing his Russian co-conspirators that he pink-slipped Comey because he was worried about the ‘great pressure’ the Russia narrative is causing him (i.e., consciousness of guilt) – rather than exasperated by it.”

There is not much more to add to Andy’s comments, though at a later date Victor Davis Hanson may have something to say about nemesis. In the meantime, we may have to pray for deus ex machina.

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