When President Trump wasn’t scaring the bejesus out of everyone Thursday with his continued one-upmanship with North Korea—“things will happen to them like they never thought possible”—he switched gears during his working, totally working vacation in Bedminster, New Jersey to comment on the job security of Robert Mueller and Russia. Always Russia.
During the press availability, here’s what Trump had to say when asked whether he was considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller:
I haven’t given it any thought. I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody. I mean, I want them to get on with the task. But I also want the Senate and the House to come out with their findings.
So that’s a change of tone. That’s the spirit! Then Trump transitioned to Vladimir Putin’s July 30th move to expel nearly two thirds of the U.S. embassy and consulate staff in the country in response to heightened U.S. sanctions passed by Congress. The State Department called the move “a regrettable and uncalled-for act.” Trump, not so much. The president of the United State employed what appeared to be an ancient negotiating technique employed by parents around the world called “reverse psychology.” Trump breezily said he was, in fact, “very thankful” that the Russian president cut 755 of 1,200 American diplomatic staff stationed in Russia. It was a dramatic escalation of the simmering rift between the U.S. and Russia over many things, most recently, Russian election meddling. Trump shrugged it off as NBD.
“I want to thank him because we’re trying to cut down our payroll, and as far as I’m concerned I’m very thankful that he let go a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll,” Trump said. “There’s no real reason for them to go back. I greatly appreciate the fact that we’ve been able to cut our payroll of the United States. We’re going to save a lot of money.”
LOL? But seriously, after ten full days of radio silence from the White House on what amounts to a serious act of diplomatic aggression from Vladimir Putin, the president’s response was de-escalated to the point of being catatonic. The president’s homebrewed lemonade on the expulsion “horrified and rattled” a State Department that is already struggling to find its footing and purpose in Trump’s Washington. “Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s third-ranking official under Republican President George W. Bush, called Trump’s comments ‘grotesque,’” according to Reuters. “If he was joking, he should know better. If he wasn’t, it’s unprecedented. A president has never defended the expulsion of our diplomats.”
The I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I gambit was also in the president’s quiver, but he chose to save it for another day.
