One odd thing about Trump is the way he seems to go out of his way to demolish the carefully assembled apologetics of his own staff. It happens again and again, but I'll give one example so it's clear what I'm talking about.
After Trump's surprise firing of Comey, his staff scrambled for an acceptable explanation. They were smart enough to realize that firing the head of the FBI at a time when he was investigating election interference that seemed to implicate the president would look like obstruction of justice. Trump hadn't given them advance warning, so they didn't have a chance to get out ahead of that with a media playbook, but within a day or so, they'd settled on the talking point that it had nothing to do with the Russia thing, and instead was about the misbehavior Rosenstein had highlighted, involving Comey abusing his office to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. For a last-second phony justification, it was pretty clever: Rosenstein's memo cited facts liberals couldn't dispute, and provided an explanation for firing that had nothing to do with the Russia thing, so it wouldn't be obstruction of justice. Sure, everyone knew it was a lie, but it gave the usual right-wing talking heads something to pretend they believed when they made the rounds of the shows, and the only thing that could definitively disprove it is if Trump came right out and admitted he'd done it because of the Russia thing.
Well, as you know, that's just what happened. After letting his team humiliate themselves pushing a well-crafted lie to try to protect him, he went on TV and admitted he'd made the decision to fire Comey before seeing the Rosenstein memo, and that he was thinking about the Russia thing when he did so.
The question is why Trump does that sort of thing. My initial thought was that he was basically acting like an abusive boyfriend, who likes to hit his girl in front of his friends, as a way of bragging about how much she has submitted to him. Maybe Trump just got off on making his press secretary, his professional apologists in the media, and all the little forum denizens look foolish, by letting them commit to talking points and then stomping on them for all to see.
Maybe that's not right, though. Maybe it's about more than the sadistic thrill of smacking around those with so little self respect that they're still making excuses for him. Maybe it's about sending a message to others -- a message that he is completely unconstrained. As Machievelli wrote, "it's better to be feared than loved." Maybe this is a way of keeping the right-wingers fearful... if he'll casually kneecap conservatives even when they're trying to help him, imagine what he'll do if they cross him. Moreover, it sends the signal that he won't be constrained by trying to stick to colorably defensible actions. If you want to signal your power, it's not enough to fire Comey for a nominal reason that would be legitimate-- you need to show you can fire him for openly illegitimate reasons, and nobody on the right will have the balls to do anything about it.
After Trump's surprise firing of Comey, his staff scrambled for an acceptable explanation. They were smart enough to realize that firing the head of the FBI at a time when he was investigating election interference that seemed to implicate the president would look like obstruction of justice. Trump hadn't given them advance warning, so they didn't have a chance to get out ahead of that with a media playbook, but within a day or so, they'd settled on the talking point that it had nothing to do with the Russia thing, and instead was about the misbehavior Rosenstein had highlighted, involving Comey abusing his office to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. For a last-second phony justification, it was pretty clever: Rosenstein's memo cited facts liberals couldn't dispute, and provided an explanation for firing that had nothing to do with the Russia thing, so it wouldn't be obstruction of justice. Sure, everyone knew it was a lie, but it gave the usual right-wing talking heads something to pretend they believed when they made the rounds of the shows, and the only thing that could definitively disprove it is if Trump came right out and admitted he'd done it because of the Russia thing.
Well, as you know, that's just what happened. After letting his team humiliate themselves pushing a well-crafted lie to try to protect him, he went on TV and admitted he'd made the decision to fire Comey before seeing the Rosenstein memo, and that he was thinking about the Russia thing when he did so.
The question is why Trump does that sort of thing. My initial thought was that he was basically acting like an abusive boyfriend, who likes to hit his girl in front of his friends, as a way of bragging about how much she has submitted to him. Maybe Trump just got off on making his press secretary, his professional apologists in the media, and all the little forum denizens look foolish, by letting them commit to talking points and then stomping on them for all to see.
Maybe that's not right, though. Maybe it's about more than the sadistic thrill of smacking around those with so little self respect that they're still making excuses for him. Maybe it's about sending a message to others -- a message that he is completely unconstrained. As Machievelli wrote, "it's better to be feared than loved." Maybe this is a way of keeping the right-wingers fearful... if he'll casually kneecap conservatives even when they're trying to help him, imagine what he'll do if they cross him. Moreover, it sends the signal that he won't be constrained by trying to stick to colorably defensible actions. If you want to signal your power, it's not enough to fire Comey for a nominal reason that would be legitimate-- you need to show you can fire him for openly illegitimate reasons, and nobody on the right will have the balls to do anything about it.
