Every time I go out recently I wonder who Trump will fire by the time I get back home. And he's been hiring really bad ones again. Remember The Mooch? That bad. People he saw on TV, like the coke addict who took Gary Cohn's place and it looks like Pete Hegseth from Fox will be replacing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. Maggie Haberman reported in yesterday's NY Times that Trump's reveling in keep everyone off-kilter. Lot's of fun for him. Is McMaster next?Remember when he had boasted at his first Cabinet meeting how he had assembled the greatest and most talented cabinet in history? Since then he's fired 6 of them. Haberman wrote that the purge at the top may not be over. Señor Trumpanzee is "famously fickle [and] appears to have soured on additional members of his senior leadership team-- and his frequent mulling about making changes has some people around him convinced that he could act soon."And the really bad news for the country is that the imbecile now feels like he's mastered the presidency and doesn't need to listen to anyone about anything. Haberman wrote that the idiot "is relying more on his own instincts, putting a premium on his personal chemistry with people and their willingness to acknowledge that his positions are ultimately administration policy, rather than on their résumé or qualifications for the job. If people are unwilling to do what he wants... now believes that he can get things done himself."
“There will always be change. I think you want to see change,” Mr. Trump said, ominously, on Thursday. “I want to also see different ideas.”John F. Kelly, his second chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, are on thin ice, having angered the president by privately saying “no” to the boss too often. White House insiders predict that Mr. Trump could decide to fire one or both of them soon.Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, and David J. Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs, have both embarrassed the president by generating scandalous headlines. Mr. Carson could be axed over an eye-popping $31,000 dining set, and Mr. Shulkin might be replaced over a 10-day, $122,000 European trip with his wife.And then there’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose original sin-- the decision to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia investigation-- made him the regular target of presidential ire. The attorney general has threatened to resign at least once, but has more recently indicated his determination to resist Mr. Trump’s obvious desire for him to leave his post at the Justice Department.
Trumpanzee insists that reports of impending doom for more senior staffers are "a very exaggerated and false story" but in the next breath said that his choices for a cabinet might have been different had he known then what he knows now. Haberman wrote that he "has a long habit of musing about staff changes that he doesn’t enact. He does his own version of poll-testing different possibilities, asking aides what they think of one another and asking outside friends and top advisers whether different people would be better in specific jobs, but he often drops the topic without acting."
That was certainly the case with Rex W. Tillerson, whom he needled for months before finally firing him in a tweet on Tuesday. It has also been true of Mr. Sessions, who has had to endure a series of Twitter attacks from the president, each of which prompts new stories about whether Mr. Trump is about to dump his top law enforcement official.“It’s devastating,” said William M. Daley, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff for about a year. “No business could handle this, much less the government. It’s supposed to be about stability and continuity. That’s just not in his lexicon.”Just last month, Mr. Trump lamented that Mr. Sessions had failed to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of Russian election meddling, and later called it “DISGRACEFUL!” that Mr. Sessions was not investigating surveillance abuse.“How Trump’s Saturday Night Massacre Might Start With Jeff Sessions,” blared a headline in New York magazine this month. Some White House officials believe that Scott Pruitt, an ambitious lawyer who is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is behind rumors that he is in line to replace Mr. Sessions.And yet, Mr. Sessions remains in his job, at least for now. Some associates speculate that Mr. Trump realizes that firing his attorney general would cross a red line for many in his own party, including Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader.“When the shoe drops on Sessions or Kelly, no one is going to be surprised,” Mr. Daley said. “But the long goodbye totally deflates their ability to be effective.”...Right now, Mr. Trump is surrounded by cabinet officials and a chief of staff who either have caused him negative headlines, such as Mr. Carson and Mr. Shulkin, or have declined to do what he wants, such as General McMaster, Mr. Kelly and Mr. Sessions.Contrary to the notion that Mr. Trump is surrounded by sycophants, the president has also tired of staff members who frequently tell him no. Mr. Tillerson disagreed with the president on Iran and North Korea, and Mr. Trump viewed him as disdainful and disloyal. But Mr. Kelly repeatedly staved off efforts to get rid of him.Mr. Trump grew frustrated with Mr. Kelly and those delays, and also for stalling on the president’s desire for tariffs. The president finally forced the issue a few weeks ago, announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum, and then forcing out Mr. Cohn, who had opposed the policy.Mr. Trump also grew frustrated last year with Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, for refusing to enact a ban on transgender members of the military. Mr. Mattis essentially ignored Mr. Trump for several weeks, White House officials said, until the president finally went around him and tweeted it. But Mr. Mattis appears to be safe, even when he ignores the president, in part because he is a general who in Mr. Trump’s mind “looks the part” of a military leader.Mr. Kelly, who is also a former general, has not fared as well.A few weeks ago, when the scandal surrounding Rob Porter, the staff secretary, exploded into view, Mr. Trump began working the phones to old friends, telling them that he needed his former advisers back and complaining that he was surrounded by people he didn’t know. He told them that Mr. Kelly had badly botched the Porter issue (his language was saltier and unfit for publication, according to several people with knowledge of the calls).Since then, he has mulled over a number of potential replacements for Mr. Kelly, but he has kept his own counsel about his plans, according to several people close to him.
Who he'd really like to get rid of most, of course, is Special counsel Robert Mueller who has now has subpoenaed the Trump Organization to turn over documents, including some related to Russia, bringing the investigation right to the Trumpanzee garish front door. Will Mueller's high approval ratings from the public keep Trump from lowering the boom on him? On his best day, Trump's rating have never gotten anywhere near Mueller's 61% approval. In fact, nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (46%) are very or somewhat confident Mueller will conduct a fair investigation.