On Monday Trump responded to overtures North Korea made to South Korea by tweeting that he has a “nuclear button” on his desk and it is bigger than Kim Jong Un’s button.
VOX does something that is always interesting. They ask Republican senators a simple Trump-related question and record their response. This was done a few months ago over what was in their health care bill. This week VOX asked what they thought about Trump’s “nuclear button” threat to North Korea. They were unfazed.
A book called Fire and Fury with unfavorable quotes from people in Trump world broke into the media this week, including quotes from Steve Banon about the Trump sons. Trump responded by releasing a statement that made a full break with Banon, saying that he had “lost his mind.”
Trump dissolved his voter fraud commission: “Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next courses of action.”
Three interesting things happened this week that are signs of how the GOP is trying to push back against the Meuller investigation and/or protect Trump from its conclusions. First, FBI director Wray and Rosenstein met with Paul Ryan over Devin Nunes request for information about how the FBI and the DOJ have used Steele Dossier. The FBI had been unwilling to provide this information, but agreed to this week.
Second, we learn that the FBI re-opened an investigation of the Clinton Foundation several “about a year ago.” Some speculate that this is happening as a kind of bone thrown to the Trump administration or to be perceived of as being even-handed.
Third, on Friday Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Grahm sent a letter to the DOJ suggesting that criminal charges may be filed against Steele for lying to the FBI. Currently no evidence exists that he did, and we are left to speculate: Do these two senators have knowledge of such a lie, or are they trying to level a partisan attack on the FBI over the Steele Dossier, or are THEY trying to throw Trump a bone.
David French writes, “it would be reckless to the point of corrupt to refer a man for investigation absent compelling evidence of wrongdoing.” But overall argues that no one in the media has access to the classified information that the senators are using to make their recommendation. Time will tell.
Here is another take by the Washington Post’s Arron Blake: “There is an increasing effort among Republicans and the conservative-leaning media to question the legitimacy of the Russia investigation. Increasingly prominent in that effort are attempts to use the Steele dossier as the basis for a deep-state conspiracy against the president.”
Finally, on Saturday morning Trump responded to the Fire and Fury quotes of his staff and supporters who say he is stupid by tweeting that he is a “stable genius”
David Frum summed it up this way: “Michael Wolff’s scathing new book about the Trump White House has sent President Trump spiraling into the most publicly visible meltdown of his presidency.
Trump’s averaged Approval Rating: 38.8