Oprah v Trump

Crazy Like a Fox or Just Crazy:  Talk about Trump’s sanity predates the release of Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” book.  Bandy Lee, an assistant professor in forensic psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine briefed a dozen members of Congress, including one Republican, on Trump’s mental state last fall.  Though she made it clear that she wasn’t officially diagnosing him, something that would be unethical since she’s never examined him, she does feel that he is unraveling.  If Wolff is to be believed almost everyone else in the White House agrees with Lee to some extent or another, either Trump’s going off the deep end so to speak or he is showing early signs of dementia.  Many of the people who’ve known Trump for a long time agree with Lee’s observations and Wolff’s reporting.  However, Wolff’s assertions are somewhat diminished by his book’s mistakes, most of which appear to be the result of sloppy editing and his not quite up to snuff journalistic standards. That said, Trump’s denial that Wolff had the access to the White House that he claims to have had, took a big hit when his toady Sebastian Gorka wrote in a Hill op-ed that he “met Michael Wolff in Reince Priebus’ office, where he was waiting to talk  with Steve Bannon after I had been told to also speak to him for his book.”  Gorka goes on to say that he didn’t cooperate because of his “gut feeling that this oleaginous scribe had no interest in being fair and unbiased."  Gorka may have been one of the few in White House who listened to his gut, up to 200 others were less sensitive to their stomachs’ rumblings including Trump who only asserts that he never spoke to Wolff “about the book,” not the same as saying that he never spoke to Wolff.  In any case, crazy, shrewd, or addled, Trump is still in the White House and instead of publicly questioning his suitability and acting accordingly, Republicans including his occasional critics such as Senators Corker and Graham, seem to have considered the relative risks of nuclear war against the benefits of getting their agenda passed and have decided to go with the tax cuts, limited regulations, reductions in social services and the loosening of environmental protections because when the bombs start flying, that stuff will have been so important?       

Appointment with Destiny:  Before attending the Crimson Tide - Bulldogs football game, where he was greeted with applause and a few f-ck you signs, Trump headed to Nashville to meet with a supportive group of farmers who were thrilled to hear him overstate the amount of the recent tax cuts by $4 trillion and warn that tax increases of at least 40 percent would be passed if and when Democrats ever retake Congress.  He deftly danced around saying much about NAFTA, the trade agreement that benefits farmers despite Trump’s protectionist views.  Though Trump’s exaggeration and bombast works well with farmers, its unlikely that his dancing with facts will work as well with Special Counsel Mueller. During their year-end meeting Mueller advised John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, Trump’s lawyers, that he would like to spend some quality time with Trump, sooner rather than later, in order to get his “insight” into the things that he has learned about collusion and obstruction during his countless other interviews.  To no one’s surprise Trump’s lawyers are reluctant to allow him to sit down for open-ended questioning and are instead trying to figure out a way to provide written answers to some of the questions.  Mueller is not expected to go for that approach and he has precedent and the Supreme Court on his side.  Back in the Watergate days, the Court ruled that presidents had to cooperate with similar requests and, when asked, subsequent presidents have, and as Bill Clinton learned the hard way, truth telling is kind of important during those sit downs. Trump could decide to plead the Fifth, avoiding the interview altogether, a strategy that would be unthinkable for any other president because of its “guilty” implications, but then Trump has proven time and again that normal rules don’t apply to him and Republicans in Congress are pretty complicit these days, so who knows.  That said, assuming his interview takes place, and it probably will, wouldn’t it be fun to be fly on the wall when Mueller starts pushing Trump’s big red buttons.  

Human Resources:  Tom Steyer the billionaire hedgy who has been running the ads calling for Trump’s impeachment has announced plans to allocate $30 million of his fortune towards supporting Democratic candidates in the upcoming 2018 midterms.  For starters he is targeting the seats currently held by House Speaker Ryan, Darrell Issa in California and Barbara Comstock in Virginia.  Given their districts’ shift towards blue, Issa and Comstock are both considered very vulnerable.  Kicking Ryan to the curb may be a little farfetched but he isn’t as loved in his district as you’d think in part because he spends little time there and never holds townhalls so if Steyer wants to support his Democratic opponent, whom ever he or she turns out to be, great.  Mitt Romney still hasn’t announced that he’s definitively running for the Utah Senate seat made open by Orrin Hatch’s impending retirement.  However he did reveal that he was successfully treated for prostate cancer last year, another indication that he’s clearing the decks in preparation for a formal announcement.  Oddly enough, Trump has re-nominated KT McFarland for the Singapore Ambassador position.  McFarland, a sometime Fox pundit, was former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s deputy, she was pushed out of the White House by Chief of Staff Kelly because of that association.  The Singapore Ambassadorship was supposed to be her severance package.  However, after she “mispresented” her conversations with Flynn about his potentially treasonous sanctions arrangement with the Russians during her Senate hearing, it was assumed that Trump would give up on her nomination in order to avoid another dicey Senate hearing.  Apparently Trump is feeling emboldened and is all in on keeping whoever he wants around, he is also considering a White House administrative position for Andy Puzder, one that wouldn’t require a Senate confirmation. Puzder is the former head of Carl’s Jr, whose nomination for Labor Secretary was withdrawn after old domestic abuse accusations against him resurfaced in the form of a tape of his ex-wife talking about her beat down on an old Oprah episode. So much for the “me too” movement.  As to  Oprah, following her inspiring Golden Globes speech, her future political plans were just about the only thing that anyone could talk about yesterday because if Trump can be president, why not Oprah?