Staff Infection

Well, kids, I am sure that you’ve heard about the New York Times op-ed written by someone only identified as a “senior official in the Trump administration.” It’s titled:

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

Who can it be? A man, a woman, one person, more than one? A real “resister” or someone who thinks this might help the Rethugs in the midterm elections? Damned if I know!  But it’s so much fun trying to guess.

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Who changes the diapers?

From npr:

Another Sunday, another Trump Twitter war.

This time, President Trump, who is spending the day at his golf course in Virginia, took aim at retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.

And Corker fired back.

“It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center,” Corker wrote. “Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.”

Adult? In years only…

Background, left to right: Ivanka, Jared Kushner, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway, Omarosa Manigault, Twitler, Stephen Miller, Mike Pence.

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Pact-Man

From New York Magazine:

Morongate (or, if you prefer, the Moron-Contra scandal) has left President Trump’s relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson understandably tense. Axios reports that not only is Trump’s confidence in Tillerson “broken beyond repair,” the president is floating a succession plan to move CIA director Mike Pompeo into Tillerson’s job. There is, however, one catch.

Earlier this week, John Hudson reported that the firing of Tillerson would trigger the exodus of two other Trump cabinet officials. Hudson’s source, he wrote, “expressed confidence in Tillerson’s status due to a so-called ‘suicide pact’ forged between Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Tillerson, whereby all three cabinet secretaries vow to leave in the event that the president makes moves against one of them.”

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Battle Him for the Republic

From  REUBEN BRIGETY at FOREIGN POLICY:

The late U.S. Poet Laureate Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them!”

In other words, no one can hide his true nature. Never has this been more accurate for an American president than in the case of Donald Trump. Events in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville have made this abundantly clear. For the first time in our history, a Nazi sympathizer occupies the Oval Office.

…snip…

As a former U.S. ambassador and senior State Department official, I know that there is a particular obligation by political appointees not only to represent the interests of the American people but also to ensure that the policies and perspectives of the elected government of the day are implemented.

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Should we start a pool & bet on when Rexit happens?

DEREK CHOLLET at SHADOW GOVERNMENT asks:

Why Has Rex Tillerson Belly-Flopped as Secretary of State?

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Toady Foster

From VANITY FAIR:

On Monday, Trump convened his first full Cabinet meeting since taking office, gathering the heads of every major government agency for a press gaggle around the elliptical mahogany table that occupies a prominent place in the West Wing. Traditionally, the media is present only at the beginning of such meetings, during which the president makes a brief statement and a few photos are snapped before a review of the administration’s progress continues behind closed doors. Trump tried something a little different.

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Beefs: It’s what’s for dinner

From mildly nauseous James Comey‘s statement (read the statement in its entirety at POLITICO):

January 27 Dinner
The President and I had dinner on Friday, January 27 at 6:30 pm in the Green Room at the White House. He had called me at lunchtime that day and invited me to dinner that night, saying he was going to invite my whole family, but decided to have just me this time, with the whole family coming the next time. It was unclear from the conversation who else would be at the dinner, although I assumed there would be others.

It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks.

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Joos van Cleeve, Henry VIII, c.1530-35