Thread by @JakeSherman

Playbook this AM: "Trump’s carousel of self-destruction”

LIKE ANY POLITICAL ENTERPRISE, the WHITE HOUSE is always keen to figure out what news will drive the week -- what line of questioning will dominate the chatter in Washington, on Capitol Hill and on cable news broadcasts.

IT’S SAFE TO SAY that much of the discussion will center around President DONALD TRUMP and his team’s most recent go-around on the self-destruction carousel.

IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, the president has ensured that members of his party will be forced to answer the following qs:

-- ARE YOU COMFORTABLE with the president’s abrupt decision to fire the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a man TRUMP appointed?

-- DO YOU AGREE WITH POTUS decision to tell his advisers to slow down the nationwide testing regime to avoid more positive results?

-- WHAT DO YOU MAKE of any one of JOHN BOLTON’S allegations about decision-making in the White House?

-- DO YOU BELIEVE the president’s campaign team is up to the task of winning the election if they so badly misjudged the crowd that was going to show up in Tulsa, and furthermore, if they didn’t change the locale if they knew it was going to fall short of expectations?

MUCH OF THIS, of course, is avoidable. And if you ask White House aides why … you won’t get a satisfactory explanation, because this kind of behavior and decision-making is questionable at best, and self-immolation at worst.

But, with fewer than five months until Election Day, this is how the president is deciding to behave, and he will force his whole party to answer for him.