This is some combination of:
a) Trump being a giant wimp
b) Someone explaining to him that Rosenstein’s departure, and his replacement by someone amenable to manipulating the investigation, does nothing to make info Mueller has already collected “disappear”.
Mostly (a).
Well, if the Kavanaugh hearings start to go bad for him you can be SURE that Trump will “summon” Rosenstein to the WH immediately to try to recapture the News-Cycle.
Josh was right. Rosenstein called his bluff and rolled him.
It was clear earlier this week Trump would ‘forget’ to have a Thursday meeting.
Draw your own conclusions.
natch
Well, he actually made an excuse to miss it. He wanted to watch the Ford/Kavanaugh hearing.
I bet he has a tub of popcorn ready.
I’ve mentioned this before… there’s something in Trump’s demeanor that has noticeably shifted. He isn’t quite as caustic, quite as forward leaning in his belligerence and level of bellicose delivery.
Tired, maybe? Or in the process of surrendering…
I think he may be at the end of his rope. Not a lot more fight left in him. His repeated mantras of “witch hunt” and “unfair” and so on falling on more and more deafened ears. His poll numbers are trending down, and Democrats generic polls are rising. Pretty consistently in the double digits now.
It all points to a looming Cul de Sac in his political career. His adult children have a real and present danger of indictment over both the Trump Organization and the Trump Foundation. Manafort will be testifying re: Don Jr. and that meeting with the Russians (and that will be conspiracy not ‘collusion’). The Emoluments suits are moving forward. And Kaveman-augh is going to have to pull quite the ‘slick willy’ to recover from Dr. Ford’s testimony today. Rock, meet hard place.
It’s unraveling, and I think he’s finally starting to resign himself to it. Moderating his tone in ways I once thought him incapable of. Not 100%, of course, but the trajectory is crystal clear to me…