Donald Trump is very confused about what exactly his job is as president and what it entails. Somehow, he’s forgotten the Obama years with the Trump birtherism tour, the accusations that he was aligned with terrorists, and the endless rants about Obama’s “presidential overreach.” Instead, Trump believed that being president would be all about accolades, praise, and hero worship no matter what he did.
Once again, the inaccuracies in Trump’s tweets are almost endless. While White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the president “certainly believes he has the power” to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he cannot, at least not directly. Apparently, no one has explained the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” to Trump that resulted from Nixon’s desire to fire his own special counsel in the Watergate probe, Archibald Cox, or why exactly it happened.
‘On October 20, 1973, in an unprecedented show of executive power, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox, but both men refused and resigned their posts in protest.’
Trump himself cannot directly fire Robert Mueller. Attorney General Jeff Sessions could if he had not recused himself from the Russian collusion investigation after he lied about his own involvement with Russian government operatives. Since Sessions cannot, Trump could order deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to do so, but that doesn’t seem likely since Rosenstein appointed Mueller and has signed off on the warrants and investigative procedures used so far in the probe.
Trump is correct that Governor Jerry Brown of California, whom Trump and Sessions have targeted in their quest to rid America of undocumented immigrants, agreed to deploy troops from the National Guard. However, he did not agree to do so to ramp up border security. According to California’s KCRA:
‘California Gov. Jerry Brown responded to President Donald Trump’s request to add more troops for border security, saying he’ll add about 400 troops but also saying they won’t be used for “enforcing federal immigration laws.”
‘The location of the troops and the number working along the border, the coast and other places in the state will be determined by the needs on the ground, the governor’s press office said.’
Trump also did very much say when a decision would be made on the Syrian crisis – he said those decisions would come within 24 to 48 hours – and he has still failed to acknowledge whether or not his sudden announcement to reporters that he would be pulling troops from Syria, an announcement that shocked and flew in the faces of his own advisers, may have contributed to the resulting attacks there.
As for Pompeo’s confirmation, the fact that a new secretary of state is being confirmed calls to mind another Trump denial from the past. In December of 2017, just four months ago, Trump excoriated the press for saying he was considering firing Rex Tillerson.
Trump’s anger over the lack of accolades is both frustrating and funny, but does this president have anyone to blame for the doubts around his credibility or the reporting of his mistakes and inaccuracies?
Featured image via Getty/The Washington Post
