There was a time when Trump wouldn’t refer to Mueller by name, tweeting only about the “Special Council” from time to time. Maybe it is because he got continually mocked for misspelling “counsel”, but Trump now refers to Mueller by name in his tweets, as he did in a large tweetstorm (7 tweets) this morning.
An unhinged Trump tweet isn’t unusual, but so many in such a short amount of time (he went on a binge on Sunday as well) is disconcerting, even in the world of Trump we live in. Is there something big coming?
I’ve been reluctant to attribute Trump’s escalation to some knowledge that something is coming, since you can argue that being unhinged is his natural resting state….but he really seems to be losing it the past few days.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) August 1, 2018
This tweet stood out:
Was this Trump calling upon Sessions to shut down the probe? If so, that’s another piece of evidence of obstruction, and the first time Trump has done that. It wasn’t altogether surprising, given that his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani has called for the investigation to be closed. But it was notable because it came directly from Trump this time, and his call focused on Sessions.
In defending the tweet, Trump’s lawyers told The Post that it wasn’t an explicit command. “He carefully used the word, ‘should,'” Giuliani noted. Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow added: “The president has issued no order or direction to the Department of Justice on this.”
But that cleanup effort betrays the problematic nature of the tweet. And this is hardly the first time that Trump has broadcast a desire to change the course of the investigation. Whether any of those tweets rise to the level of obstruction of justice or may be used to build such a case, we don’t know. But Trump has clearly played with fire — and is continuing to do so.