Shortly before Super Tuesday last year, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed Donald Trump for president. At a campaign rally in Sessions’ home state of Alabama, Sessions explained to the crowd that while “we don’t get everything we want” in a candidate, “at this time, in my best judgment, at this time in America’s history, we need to make America great again.”
Sessions was one of the first major Republican officials to embrace the campaign, which not only further legitimized it but also signaled to other Republicans in Congress to see the writing on the wall and embrace the movement happening before them.
More than a year and a half later, President Sweet Potato Saddam has returned the favor by publicly throwing Attorney General Segregation Now, Segregation Forever onto the MTA tracks to be run over (that is, if the raggedy-ass train ever arrives).
In his now infamous interview with the New York Times, the 45th president of the United States said:
Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president. ... How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, “Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.” It’s extremely unfair—and that’s a mild word—to the president.
No. 45 went on to criticize Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, too, though Sessions suffered the most damage. Days following that New York Times interview, the Washington Post reported that Sessions discussed Trump’s campaign-related matters with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Although 45 took to Twitter to lash out at the report, dubbing it “FAKE NEWS,” many have questioned the timing of the report—speculating that someone from the White House, or perhaps 45 himself, leaked that information, which only a handful of people could have, known given its severity, in order to push Sessions out.
However, regardless of who leaked the information, 45’s interview alone has been enough to prompt White House staff to express alarm over the president trashing not only his own attorney general but also a man who took a risk in lending his political capital to his campaign.
CNN reports:
There’s also a general sense of bewilderment as to why Trump gave the interview. Health care was the focus of the day. He actually got engaged—but then this.
“It’s chilling,” one White House official said.
Conversations with the official and one top Republican in frequent contact with the West Wing show a president who has long been angry with Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, but rather than subsiding and moving on as Trump sometimes does, the anger has grown into a passionate rage.
“No one was more loyal than Sessions. No one,” a White House official said, speaking confidentially to avoid drawing the president’s ire. Trump’s trashing of several of his administration’s top justice officials in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is causing deep alarm inside the West Wing, leading some to worry that their loyalty to Trump might not be reciprocated from the man in the Oval Office.
The thinking goes: If this could happen to Sessions, it could happen to anyone. One official described the president’s blasting of Sessions as only intensifying the already low morale inside the West Wing.
Well, duh.
Not done with Sessions, 45 took another shot at him by referring to him as “our beleaguered A.G.” Perhaps he didn’t have enough characters to say, “I’m the reason why our attorney general is beleaguered.”
Then the man rolled his eyes when a reporter asked if Sessions should resign.
To those working in that administration wondering whether or not he’ll do to them what he just did to Sessions, worry no longer: Yes, he is going to wrap you in bacon and throw you to the wolves. Moreover, it will presumably happen sooner rather than later.
Ask Sean Spicer, who may be currently pretending that it has been a duty and an honor to serve under this president as press secretary but is probably elated to soon be free of the torture that is working for the micromanager and pathological liar. On day 2 on the job, 45 had the man go out and throw a sass-filled fit over the lackluster crowd size for his inauguration. On day 3 he reportedly said of Spicer’s appearance, “He was terrible.” On day 5 he insulted his wardrobe, and by day 19 he was said to have already been looking for Spicer’s replacement.
When he decided to fire FBI head James Comey, he didn’t bother to inform his press secretary. Not long after that, 45 met with Pope Francis and sent Spicer, a devout Catholic, home before he had the pleasure of meeting the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
That’s why it’s senseless to compliment 45 for not firing Spicer. No, he didn’t fire his press secretary, but he did micromanage him; coerce him, into telling lie after lie while quickly undermining his own communications staff by constantly shifting positions; humiliate him; and deprive him of the chance to meet a religious leader who directly speaks to his faith for no other reason than to be spiteful. In sum, he made his job impossible and unbearable and gave him numerous reasons to resign before he ultimately did so. Good luck with that, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The same goes for new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Scaramucci will either irritate his boss for getting too much attention, not properly defending him to his liking or some combination of both. And knowing 45, who loves getting even with those he feels disrespected him, while Scaramucci may currently speak of y’all’s president as his latest, greatest inspiration, he did once write an op-ed condemning the tenets of the Trump campaign. If 45 will lash out at someone who was loyal to him when he needed it most during the campaign because he did something he didn’t like (i.e., obey the law), what do you think he will do to someone who criticized him during that same time? Someone get Mitt Romney in a group chat to share with the class.
So, not only should staffers worry about being treated like Sessions or worse, but they can also look forward to likely being largely responsible for covering any legal bills related to the current investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Yeah, Sweet Potato Saddam Jr. is being covered by his dad’s re-election campaign, but that cheap jackass is unlikely to pay that same courtesy to staffers who don’t share the family name.
That said, no one should pity those people whispering their fears to CNN.
Although 45 has long spoken about the importance of loyalty among those who work for him, by that same token, he’s also long proved himself to be the embodiment of the mantra “Trust no one, bitch.” So, for those working in the White House currently expressing befuddlement about that interview and wondering about the chances that they’ll soon be treated like Sessions, one wonders on what planet they have been living. Like, who went into the White House thinking that that man, of all people, was going to be the Kendrick Lamar to their Rihanna?
Have these people not read about how 45 has handled previous marriages? Have they not read the extensive reporting that’s been done on the hundreds of people he never bothered to pay? Are they unfamiliar with scandals involving his beauty pageants, Trump University, his four bankruptcies, his former casino and so on?
It shouldn’t have taken 45’s remarks about Sessions to convince White House staffers that none of them are special snowflakes who can somehow get a narcissist who’s spent much of his life screwing people over to be as loyal to them as they’ve been to him. Ditto for the unemployed ex-Carrier workers talking about broken promises, and GOP senators feigning dismay at how 45 speaks of Justice Department officials.
Meanwhile, 45 is laying the groundwork for future attacks against members of his own party.
Many of them have largely debased themselves by consistently defending the indefensible, though evidently, that is still not enough for their president. A quick Google search of “Is Donald Trump a damn liar?” would have yielded enough results to fast-track anyone to the conclusion that Trump cannot be trusted. The man lies as if the truth causes a burning sensation when he urinates.
Anyone not aware of that is someone who purposely avoids reconciling with the obvious.