Yesterday (the day after I first published my original article on the Trump-Nixon comparisons that are now screaming in everyone's face), Trump was interviewed by Lester Holt on NBC and contradicted everything his press team had said about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, stating that it was entirely his idea from the beginning to fire Comey and that his reason was particularly related to the FBI investigation of the Trump-Russia conspiracy, though Trump implied his move was to help the investigation gain more credibility (and speed), not to impede it. (Apparently trusting his salesmanship enough to actually think people would believe him when he said with a straight face in the interview — that his purpose was to help the FBI investigate him and Russia more thoroughly … albeit expeditiously ... and to build America’s trust in the outcome of the investigation.)
Then today, as if Trump’s immediate contradiction of his entire press staff wasn’t peculiar enough, President Donard Trixon purposely established the most blatant tie between himself and Tricky Dick Nixon he possibly could have come up with. In order to prove he’s not a crooked Dick, he threatened (as Richard “I’m not a crook” Nixon would have done) the FBI director that he just fired (as Nixon would have done) by implying in a tweet that he will (in a manner that begs Watergate déjà vu) release the SECRET RECORDINGS he apparently has of conversations between himself and James Comey!
Oh, my goodness! Even as numerous readers on Zero Hedge criticize me for laying out the Nixonian comparisons, Trump decides to heap more ready-made material on top for me! Yes, if the former FBI director dares to act like Deep Throat (the high-level FBI director who became the primary informant during the Watergate scandal) by leaking information to the press (as Deep Throat did to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post),Trump implied he will use secrete recordings he has apparently made of his conversations.
Oh my gosh! Just when I thought the Nixon connections couldn’t get any more obvious! And Trump is the one creating all of them!
The result, of course, of this blatant attempt to silence the FBI, is that leaks are now bursting out everywhere:
At a moment of crisis, the White House looks surrounded on the outside and divided on the inside.
“It’s total chaos,” said one former transition team official with close ties to the administration.
“It’s image-making on the inside and people trying to protect themselves. There is a deep streak of paranoia among staff. The communications team shit the bed on the Comey firing and now the war with the FBI has them all scared and throwing each other under the bus.”Thank God I don’t work there. If I did, I’d be dialing up my attorney.”
…
The unusually detailed accounts of inner turmoil frustrated Trump’s allies in the media, like Matt Drudge, who runs the enormously influential conservative aggregation website Drudge Report. “We never got 1 damaging leak out of Obama White House staff in 8 yrs. Under Trump, they appear hourly. BIG DANGER: Small leaks sink ships!!” Drudge said in a flurry of tweets.
“Trump advisers leaking to media are now deliberately sabotaging presidency. Major house cleaning needed for survival. Leaks on hour, every hour, will destroy Trump presidency. There’s a Trojan horse plotting within the inner circle!” (The Hill)
I think, and have stated even before Trump was elected, the Trojan horse is Trump. This is a White House falling apart at the seams as everyone is starting to realize they may really be serving a lunatic president. Like Don Quixote jousting at windmills, Trump has gone from fighting the deep state to fighting Deep Throat (or, at least, someone he fears will become Deep Throat). But the most amazing part of this is that, each step of the way, Trump is the one setting up scenes that are screaming for comparisons to Richard Nixon. He has now filled the chocolate box with morsels of Watergate-tasting treats ready-made for the press’s consumption.
Trump’s own suspicious nature (like Nixon’s) creates suspicion. For example, I now ask what exactly is it that Trump so greatly fears James Comb-me-over will leak? At this point, I more than suspect something is there because “leaks” (Trump’s chosen word -- and Trump “has and uses the best words” -- are about real things you don’t want known, or they wouldn’t be called “leaks.” Trump’s not-even-slightly-veiled threat to Comey could have warned that he would reveal his recordings if Comey “lied” about the president or “denied” the truth or “fabricated” things to be more than they were.
However, Trump did not threaten to reveal secret recordings if Comey comes out and lies about him. He threatened to reveal secret recordings if Comey “leaks” information. It’s not a leak if it’s a lie. So, Trump practically admitted there is truth Comey knows that Trump is very afraid of — so afraid that it appears to have sent him completely out of control of himself as he actually threatened Comey in a very public way, should Comey come out with any of it.
And, of course, threatening the just-fired FBI director if he comes out with any information is a thinly veiled threat to the entire FBI because, if Trump will play get-even with their beloved director, he’ll play get-even with any one of them that dares to open his or her mouth. The FBI is familiar with how these kinds of threats are to be understood. How close is that threat from the most powerful person in the world (and the FBI's commander-in-chief) to being an illegal impedance of justice?
Unbelievable! This is just getting richer by the day as we watch President Donard Trixon dig his way deep into the manure pile of history and then pull it down over his own comby head.
Is this what it looks like when a narcissist who started his career in the Watergate era self-destructs? This week’s stunning images of self-destruction and of a White House flying apart at the seams as its press agents literally run for cover in the hedges and beg news agencies to “turn the lights off” will be talked about for years and years to come.
The meltdown has begun.