ROLL OUT THE BARREL, WE'LL HAVE A BARREL OF FUN
Soon it will be Donald Trump’s time in the barrel. He knows it, and he’s panicking. June is the beginning of a summer of drama the likes of which we haven’t seen since the denouement of the Watergate scandal 1974.
Act I happened last week. With Steve Bannon whispering in his ear, he sought revenge against the NATO members who snickered at him by refusing to endorse Article 5, the “all for one and one for all” provision that’s at the heart of the treaty. French President Macron had the temerity to squeeze his hand too hard, so Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, apparently in the mistaken belief that because the treaty was signed in Paris, it advantages France in some way.
Act II was a string of defiant tweets about his failed travel ban, which basically prove the ACLU’s point that the intent of the ban is to discriminate on the basis of religion. You have to wonder if Trump has made up his mind to tell the Supreme Court to go to hell if it renders a verdict he doesn’t like. History has not looked kindly upon Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the Supreme Court in 1832, and it’s not likely to be more sympathetic to Trump’s extra-legal Muslim ban, should he defy a decision from the Court.
Act III has been to insult American allies, starting wwith the Mayor of London, who didin’t panic in the wake of a terrorist incident. Then came the bizarre finger pointing at Qatar, as Trump inserted America into a regional diplomatic crisis, accusing Qatar of sponsoring terrorism. Why couldn’t they be more like his pals in Saudi Arabia, home to the extreme Wahhabist sect, and from whence 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were from? Not to mention a cool glowing orb! It’s a good thing the U.S. doesn’t have any military bases in Qatar, right? Oh, wait. We do. In fact, it’s the largest American base in the Middle East. Well, I’m sure the Qatari will be good sports about everything.
Incredibly, all that is only a prologue to the week’s genuine drama, when the Senate Intelligence Committee will hear from several men who know most of Donald Trump’s secrets. Act IV opens on Wednesday, the agenda is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, starring Director of National Intelligence, Daniel Coats; Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Andrew McCabe; National Security Agency Director, Admiral Mike Rogers; and the Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Republicans on the committee will almost certainly try to change the subject by spending all their time asking about leaks and unmasking. I hope Democrats can avoid the temptation to head down that rabbit hole. Please, gentlemen, use your time wisely.
Act V takes place on Thursday morning, when former FBI Director James Comey will finally have an opportunity to talk about his tenure under Donald Trump. Much as I’d love to hear him call Trump out for treason and obstruction of justice, I’m not counting on it. Comey is trained to be circumspect, especially in public testimony – as, for that matter, are his colleagues who are to testify Wednesday. These are careful men, who know what the stakes are.
Odds are, none of their testimony will reflect well on Trump, but it’s not clear how much they’ll feel free to say in public session. They’ll have been debriefed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and they won’t say anything that will make his work more difficult. That’s fine with me. Measure twice, cut once.
And while all this is going on, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Donald Trump himself is sinking ever more rapidly into dementia. We can’t count on him to behave rationally. We can’t count on Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell to put America’s interests ahead of their own very short term political agenda. We can’t count on Trump’s family to intervene, even to spare the patriarch of the clan lasting humiliation. The co-conspirators have their own problems to worry about. The Bannon types probably believe that they’ll land on their feet no matter what happens to Trump. And the dim bulbs, the Carsons and Perrys in the Cabinet, will be content to collect their paychecks.
But what are the so-called grownups in the room thinking – people like Mattis, Kelly, and McMaster, who presumably aren’t complicit in #TrumpRussia? Surely they see the train wreck unfolding. What’s their endgame?
We're approaching the 50th anniversary of the terrible "long hot summer" of 1967, when riots erupted in 159 American cities. We're about to find out what the summer of 2017 has in store for us.