President Trump must be the least devious conniver in history. If he were a boxer, he’d put Western Union out of business by telegraphing every punch. If he were a poker player, he’d be all tell and no show. If he were a serial killer, he’d welcome the police to search his house, as long as they kept away from his prize rose bushes in the back yard.
His technique in dealing wth the manifold troubles of his seat-of-the-pants administration has been just as transparent. He brags he can molest women and then claims he never laid a finger on the women his lawyer has had to bribe to keep quiet. He claims he’s cutting taxes for the hard working men and women of America, not for people like him. Then he’s caught gloating to his Mar-A-Lago cronies that he has delivered a huge windfall to them.
He promises he’ll bring the best people to Washington, yet as fast as he hires them he dumps the best people. The second best he retains, and they may be the biggest gaggle of crooks since the Grant Administration, blatantly in bed with the industries they regulate, putting cronies and family on the payroll, helping themselves to expensive furniture, travel, praetorian guards, and other perks. Zinke, Pruitt, Price, Perry, Carson, Mulvaney.
He tweets incessantly that the Russian interference with the integrity of an American election that benefited him is “fake news,” that there was no collusion. Yet the number of people in his orbit who had connections to Russia, Putin’s inner circle, and shady oligarchs would populate a city the size of Magnitogorsk. Many have already been indicted and plenty more are in the on deck circle. Don, Jr. Ivanka, Kushner, Manafort and Gates, Carter Page, Papadopoulos, Erik Prince, Michael Flynn, et al.
Most hilarious is the fact that long before any of this stuff became an issue, Trump was warning investigators that his business dealings, his personal finances, the artful deals for which he deserved respect were off limits, as were the tax returns he promised to release as soon as a neverending audit was concluded.
In short, turning over rocks in regard to Trump Inc. was crossing a red line, unacceptable, beyond the pale, verboten. He might as well have written an engraved invitation to Robert Mueller’s forensic accountant, or gone around wearing a sign on his back. Instead of saying, “Kick Me,” it would say, in Day-Glo paint, “FOLLOW THE MONEY!” No wonder the raid to confiscate the records of Michael Cohen, his lawyer-fixer-bagman-bimbo wrangler fused all Trump’s circuits.
His reaction represented another flashing red sign, telling the hounds that they were on the right track. “Attorney-client privilege is dead,” he tweeted. Well, yes, if attorney and client are collaborating in an illegal scheme to obstruct justice, cover up sex scandals, or steal an election. The latter now seems less far-fetched, since it is now reported Cohen was in Prague, as the Steele dossier contended. Allegedly, he was serving as a liaison between the Putin trolls and the Trump campaign.
The raids are a “disgrace,” or at least may shed light on many disgraceful doings. They were “an attack on all we stand for.” True, if you stand for collusion, subversion, peculation, obstruction, lying, cheating, bribery. And of course, he repeatedly reiterated, “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
It’s possible Mr. Trump doesn’t understand the meaning of the witch hunt metaphor or its origin. In Salem, wild-eyed Puritans put people to death because they thought the place was overrun with witches. But there were no witches. After the Russian Revolution, Attorney General Palmer launched raids to round up subversives. It soon became clear that, like a later day Mather, he was seeing imaginary Red witches under every bed. But he proved that playing on popular fears worked politically. McCarthy, Nixon and HUAC played the same game. If you could make the public believe there were witches, then any political foes who denied it must be witches too.
The problem with Trump’s employment of this hoary device is that there really are witches this time. Putin is one. His troll farm in St. Petersburg was real, and was using the internet to do digital witchcraft, influence opinion, target voters with misinformation, and steal and American election. Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, Wikipedia, among others, colluded in the witchcraft, wittingly or as useful idiots.
Yes, Mueller is conducting a witch hunt, and every time he turns over a rock another connection to Putin conspiracy pops out. Erik Prince is in the Seychelles meeting a witch whisperer. Michael Cohen has a rendezvous with a witch in Prague, then lies about his whereabouts. The Trumps, Kushners and Manafort meet with Russians, are in debt to Russians, have real estate deals with Russians, sit down to talk with them during the campaign, but not about dirt on Hillary, about orphans. They change the Republican platform in ways favorable to Putin and resist sanctions on him, but that doesn’t mean they are under his spell.
And yet, the tells keep coming. We learn Trump dragged his feet about joining Britain and France in ejecting Russian diplomats following the poisoning of a Putin enemy in England. And Trump exploded in rage when he learned U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley had announced more sanctions on Russia that he had approved. Instead, he reversed his decision and blamed her for getting it wrong. Perhaps his aides thought he told them to kick Putin’s ass, when he actually told them to kiss it. Or perhaps he got orders from the covern to call in off, or else.
Trump may claim the Russia attack is a hoax and he did not collude and knows no one in Russia, but Mueller seems to believe the witches are real. And guess who else seems to think it? The CIA, NSA, FBI, MI6, a Fisa Court that allowed wiretaps, several judges, a grand jury issuing indictments, investigative reporters.
It looks a lot like, Ding Dong, the witches aren’t dead. They are alive and well and living in Moscow and possibly in the West Wing. And Mueller is after them with a pail of subpoenas. Is it only a matter of time until we arrive at Trump’s last tweet? “I’m melting! Ohhhhh… What a world, what a world! Who ever thought a little special prosector like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”