Lately, it seems like leaks and/or effective reporting offer a scoop on the Trump-Russia story or general Team Trump incompetence and infighting on a daily basis, with stories coming out just in time to dominate the evening news cycle. Trump himself has settled into a pattern of undermining his own team and/or generally confirming that he’s an incompetent boob via morning tweets. Today was no exception:
There’s so much wrong here. First, Trump flacks have spent weeks trying to tamp down the “ban” talk since characterizing the Muslim ban as a “Muslim ban” is a loser in court. Their boss just made liars of them by using the word “ban” and implying that it’s targeting Muslims by invoking “political correctness.”
Trump further undermined his own people by dissociating himself from the “politically correct” document he signed. And he’s undercut his pending SCOTUS case by saying the courts are compromised and hinting that it would be better if his decrees could be enacted immediately as if he were Vladimir Putin, a Saudi prince or a Turkish or Filipino strongman. All in the space of about seven minutes.
Meanwhile, my Twitter feed tells me Kellyanne Conway is on TV this morning admonishing journalists for covering Trump’s tweets and basically implying that the so-called president doesn’t speak for his own administration.
It’s entirely possible this is all a cynical ploy: Maybe the Trumpsters know the SCOTUS will strike down the ban anyway and are doubling down on anti-Muslim hysteria so they can use the next terrorist incident here as a Reichstag fire moment. It honestly would not surprise me.
Welcome to Crazytown, folks. Every day, it feels more and more like something has to give, that we can’t go on this way for another three years, seven months and 16 days.