The White House is getting crazier by the day, as Donald Trump refuses to hear any narrative that doesn't end with him getting a second term. That leaves a handful of far-right fantasists to advise him.
An Oval Office meeting last week devolved into shouting and chaos over advisor Mike "the Felon" Flynn's suggestion of martial law. Trump is also listening to fringe-theorist Sidney Powell, a former member of Trump's election-fighting lawyer team, who was in that meeting. Meanwhile, Trump is considering firing longtime White House lawyer Pat Cipollone, who added a voice of constraint that day.
Trump is seriously considering having the military seize voting machines. He has already asked about getting state legislatures to rescind their electoral votes, according to Jon Swan of Axios, but Trump has been told he can't.
"We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House," Swan writes.
When even the pliable Bill Barr walks away, you know it's dire.
Now the most ardent Trump loyalists are in Trump's angry laser beam. Mitch McConnell, who recently stated that Biden won the election. Trump trolled him by emailing a timeline graph to Republicans on Capitol Hill, calling McConnell "the first one off the ship," and claiming credit for McConnell's re-election.
A Lincoln Project ad saying that Pence is backing away from Trump has made Trump believe that Pence will certify the election results for Biden (a betrayal in Trump's mind).
After visiting Trump recently, Overstock .com founder Patrick Byrne, one of Trump's fringe friends, also fed into Trump's craziness by tweeting that Trump's advisers "want him to lose and are lying to him," adding "For the first time in my life I feel sorry for Donald Trump. He is standing up to his waist in snakes. Trust Rudy and Sidney only."
Writes Chris Cilliza of CNN, "In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge," CNN reports.
The problem is that Trump is still President. He has the rights to the nuclear football. He can still rule by fiat -- to some extent -- through executive action.
If Trump goes to Mar-a-lago for his usual January vacation, he'll be doing government work, including making phone calls and taking meetings, without commonsensical advisors hovering nearby.
That prospect should scare all of us.
Do you think Trump's advisors will be able to keep him hemmed in till January 20th? How?
Do you think that the 25th amendment is worth a try at this late date in Trump's presidency?
What will happen at the end of Trump's ongoing tailspin?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/21/politics/trump-white-house-sidney-powell/?hpt=ob_blogfooterold
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