This is the endgame. And it’s scary. Trump pretty clearly didn’t understand how things work when he first took office—was basically willing to appoint whomever the Federalist Society assured him was a competent lawyer—then fumed he couldn’t use DOJ as a hit squad.
Now he pretty clearly gets it. Expect leadership post-cleanse to be chosen with a lot more personal involvement, with personal loyalty & willingness to carry out orders as prime criteria.
By 2020, we won’t be seeing angry tweets impotently wondering why DOJ won’t investigate his Democratic opponents like Hannity says they should, because he’ll be a lot more careful about picking replacements who will.
A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal argued that fears of an autocratic Trump administration were overblown because, essentially, our institutions have checked Trump’s openly autocratic impulses. wsj.com/articles/about…
And they weren’t totally wrong. But that was partly a lucky byproduct of Trump’s ignorance of how those institutions worked. He’s clearly been both surprised and frustrated to find that career Justice Department attorneys won’t automatically protect his friends & harass his foes.
Again, he gets it now. And I know some of this probably sounds like paranoid hyperbole — I wish it were — but this isn’t me just imagining the worst. This is what he openly says he wants DOJ and FBI to become. Repeatedly. He’s angry that it isn’t already.
Trump reportedly wanted to fire Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia inquiry, because he expected the Attorney General to “protect’ him. Fake news? No, he later *said outright in an on-the-record interview* that’s what he thinks the AG’s job is. businessinsider.com/trump-has-grea…
“Trump, appearing frustrated and at times angry, has complained to confidants and aides in recent weeks that he does not understand why he cannot simply give orders to ‘my guys’ at what he sometimes calls the ‘Trump Justice Department’” washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
“The saddest thing is, because I’m the president of the U.S., I’m not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I’m not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing and I am very frustrated by it.”
Again, not some anonymously sourced private remark, but openly said in a radio interview. washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
Or remember this gem?
And the follow up?
None of this is speculative. Trump has *told us repeatedly* what he wants FBI & DOJ to do. And it’s equally clear why—the only reason why—it hasn’t happened: because those agencies are staffed by people who are willing to tell him “no, that’s not appropriate.”
He has been equally explicit about wanting that changed. You don’t have to believe liberals or the “fake news media” to think Donald Trump wants FBI and DOJ staffed by loyalists who’ll protect him without question & carry out his bidding. You just have to believe Donald Trump.
People are rightly focused on the prospect Trump will try to fire Mueller. But Trump running a purge at DOJ/FBI and installing people who will carry out his stated intent for those agencies would be much, much, much more dangerous in the long run.
I feel like we’re somehow going to be shocked if this starts to happen because it all sounds a little hysterical — it sounds that way to me! — even though literally the only premise required is that Trump really means what he constantly says.
