Earlier this morning, I said the following about the suggestion that Donald Trump is on the verge of firing special counsel Robert Mueller:
So Donald Trump is, by some accounts, about to make a catastrophic mistake. I mean, he makes catastrophic mistakes all the time, but now, he’s thinking about firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
[…]
Make no mistake, firing Mueller would be a PR disaster for Trump. It would put him in the position of having fired the FBI Director leading the investigation into the administration’s ties to Moscow and then firing the special counsel appointed to resume that same investigation.
Nope, nothing suspicious about that.
And while plenty of aides have apparently told Trump that the worst thing he could possibly do at this juncture is terminate Mueller, you and I both know that he’d sooner risk firing Mueller than he would risk an honest investigation into his administration’s Kremlin ties.
If he’s willing to fire an FBI Director and then brag to the Russians about it the very next day (in the Oval Office no less), then there’s every reason to believe he’d kick the special counsel to the curb at a moment’s notice. Indeed, it was clear from the time Mueller was appointed that the White House would seek to undermine him.
Well, consider that and then take a moment to peruse the following Brent Budowsky piece out this morning in The Hill…
The latest twist in the “Putingate” scandal, a major factor driving Trump’s negative ratings to near 60 percent, is that some of his “friends” are suggesting Trump might fire the almost universally-respected and admired special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Whether one believes Trump will actually fire Mueller would depend on the degree one believes that Trump or people very close to him are guilty of crimes that would come to the attention of the special counsel. If Trump knows that neither he nor those close to him did anything wrong, it would be in his and their interest for Mueller to remain and clear him.
If Trump does fire Mueller, it would be a virtual admission of guilt in the eyes of huge numbers of Americans. There would be an intense backlash from across the spectrum of American political thought, including liberals, political independents and principled conservatives. His unfavorable rating would climb to more than 60 percent, his low favorable ratings would collapse even further, and he would probably face one or more major resignations in protest from his cabinet.
My guess is that Trump does not fire Mueller because the political and legal impact would be so catastrophic for him and Republicans.
Many reasonable and respected people will argue that the threat to fire Mueller is an attempt to intimidate the former FBI director and the special counsel team to influence the investigation. This would constitute an obstruction of justice, which a growing number of eminent legal authorities believe exist today.
Similarly, the comic opera surrounding Trump’s threat that he possesses White House tapes of meetings with former FBI Director James Comey would be interpreted by many legal authorities as an attempt to intimidate and influence the testimony of a key witness. If there are no Trump tapes, attention will turn to why he pretended such tapes might exist when he knew they did not.
The Senate Intelligence Committee should immediately subpoena any tapes and put this matter decisively to rest.
Washington, D.C. has become a surreal “Fantasy Island.” Trump chaired a ludicrous cabinet meeting Monday during which one cabinet member after another publicly offered Trump fawning praise that would be humiliating to cabinet members of any previous president. Trump then claimed that he has already achieved more than any previous president other than Franklin Roosevelt!
If Trump fires Mueller he would achieve the grand slam for closing arguments in a possible case of obstruction of justice. He fired former New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara while his office was investigating the Russia scandal. He fired former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she warned the White House of the dangers of the Russia scandal. He fired former FBI Director James Comey after Comey refused to heed his wish to end the investigation of his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn.
To now fire Robert Mueller, who leads the Russia investigation today, would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, even for many Republicans in Congress.
If Trump fires Mueller there will be champagne toasts in the Kremlin, fear and dread in the Republican cloakrooms of the House and Senate, impeachment resolutions filed by members of both parties, a constitutional crisis of the first order of magnitude and a premature and unhappy ending for the Trump presidency.
Incidentally, here’s a clip of the cabinet meeting
Trump on himself: “Never has there been a president, with few exceptions…who’s passed more legislation, who’s done more things”@PolitiFact pic.twitter.com/4ZFNDrcOuL
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 12, 2017
And here’s Chuck Schumer trolling it:
GREAT meeting today with the best staff in the history of the world!!! pic.twitter.com/ocE1xhEAac
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 12, 2017
Great news for China. Already the biggest economy on earth, and still growing 6X faster than the second biggest economy, most analysts expect China to dominate the world in all matters by 2032 by the latest, and perhaps as early as 2020 according to a few analysts.
US shooting itself in the foot over groundless impeachment diversions, which have already rendered the US Dollar and US markets the worst in the world so far in 2017, will merely expedite the displacement of the US by China on the global stage on all issues. So bad that the US may even fall behind the pathetic Europeans!
Good post. I think we have seceded to China way too much already and the foot is gone. They will in the coming years control most of the eastern world as the modern “silk route” (into the Middle East and Europe) becomes a reality. They will back oil, banking, trade and their currency with gold and become a massive power in the not to distant future. So not only the foot is gone maybe the whole leg.
I am an expat now in Asia with a different perspective, one widely shared among a mass of expats here.
The East is enjoying a broad based advance with a bright future, and it’s a good thing because it’s now self-sustaining growth here that also helps the rest of the world. Long gone are days when it was jobs moving from West to East; rather the low-paying jobs in the middle-income countries like China are rapidly moving to cheaper countries like Indonesia, Mexico, Vietnam and the Indian subcontinent, while the middle income countries have moved up the food chain to domestic service jobs and value-add skilled jobs.
The net of it is, China is not really a rival to US; and instead there is a big opportunity for a win-win situation between the US and developed Asia (China-HongKong, S.Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore). China and the rest of eastern Asia truly want prosperity and a mutually beneficial relationship with the US like it has with Germany and Russia.
Instead, many US politicians seem determined to destroy the US economy permanently for short-term political gain. While others seem to want a war with Russia or China (allies now). Just pathetic and sad.
Every month, thousands of America’s best leave for here. The renunciation stats are but one of the disturbing canaries in the coal mine for US policymakers & politicians.
“groundless impeachment diversions” my ass. I would actually prefer Treason.
– Murphy
“President Pence.” Say it a few times, just to savor the sound of it. Think of the possibilities, theocracy with an Ayn rand flavor. Try to keep your lunch down.
“Ayn rand flavour”? You mean like in the free market, capitalist city-state of Singapore? Which has replaced Qatar as richest nation on earth, and done so with no natural resources whatsoever; just with its industrious Chinese people and free-market economy. Singapore, the benign-totalitarian state that China is gradually copying thanks to the great Deng Xiao Ping. How obvious it is that the 21st century will belong to Asia, while the left completes its destruction of the USSA. Especially as half the USSA despises free markets and capitalism; heaven help USSA as it’ll need all the help it can get as the socialist disease infects it. Wonder whether the US will suffer its death in a Venezuala-type socialism or Nazi-type socialism (bet the latter).
OH Please……. Funny their healthcare system is rated as the second best in the world, and it is SOCIALISM. WTF. Half the USA despises free markets? WTF We have hardly ANY free markets left. Sorry, you have the wrong boogiemen haunting your soul. McConnell/Ryan, are your boys, read up on their sell out of America.
Nope. I live here, so unless you do I don’t think you really understand it. But I agree the free markets aren’t as free anymore, at least they weren’t when I left.
Well the Obama admin has largely destroyed the US financial future by, among other things, losing the petrodollar, FATCA and weaponizing dollar SWIFT. Incompetent and clueless financial stewardship with decades of negative repercussions. It’s already taught in finance in Asia in the “US financial suicide” chapter. Sad to say.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, Trump should have dropped his pants at the cabinet meeting and actually let all those independent members actually kiss his a**.
I don’t know how anyone can watch that “show” and still think he is even close to normal. That scene is exactly what he likes about his dictator boyfriends. It is disgusting that this country has a group of people that even support him and even worse that the Electoral College voters put this lunatic in office. And our world is upside-down and getting worse! The biggest issue today is that the office of the president has too many powers – specifically, to fire anyone who he wants to keep away from investigating him. How ridiculous is that?
– Murphy
So trump is a total a.z.z. etc. Everyone gets that. So I never voted for him due (and I never voted for the other one either). More importantly, there is some good economic stuff on the agenda. Like productive infrastructure projects (western infrastructure sucks compared to Asia’s nowadays), tax reform, deregulation (glass-steagall excluded), incentivize companies to repatriate funds, etc.
US economic future is very bleak if instead US goes down the path of political hell. Look at what happened after 1973, as the US went from prosperity to ten years of economic hell that makes these last ten years look like boom times. Many of you aren’t old enough to remember or have experienced it 1974-83. Well, you are going to experience a truly lost decade (or longer) if you continue down this road of political perdition. And this time, it’ll be a much worse economic outcome than that 1973-83 decade was. Because the US in a far weaker economic & financial position today than it was in 1973, and its competitors are far stronger & bigger today than back then. They will quickly take all the marbles and the football, so to speak, if the US fumbles it.
Well, just saying he is an ass, does not even come close to the truth! He is incompetent, almost illiterate, ignorant of all US history, clueless on procedures, no social grace and no class, cannot say two sentences without a lie in there somewhere and does not care that everyone knows and talks about it all the time! seriously! All those things on his agenda — he promised only what he understood people wanted to hear and he has no ability to do any of it. Everything he has attempted thru today has failed, some more than once, failed. And when it does, he rages and blames anyone else and rants about how unfair the judges are, how the media lies, rude to all press members except his favorite fake news, i.e. Hannity, Ruddy, O’Reilly, Fox News, Newsmax, etc.
His healthcare plan will eliminate about 24 million people from even having coverage! He puts out a budget plan that he raves how great it is and there is a two trillion dollar math mistake! Don’t believe it? Google it all, it is all true, 100% true. Unless and until this man is out of the White House, nothing will get done. The GOP is a mess and the Republican side of this democracy is too greedy for the control and they have chosen to ignore the problem and only make excuses for him. His presidency is absolutely doomed to fail and the longer he sits there, the worse condition our country will be when he finally is out.
This man is so far out of touch with reality – hell, most of us think he has serious mental issues and should be examined! Extreme narcissism, attention span of a gnat, still refuses to accept that he did not win the popular vote by 3 million people (!), gets really pissed when anyone says the crowd at his inauguration was not the largest of any president ever elected, absolutely believes he is the best president to ever serve this country, and so much more. I know that sounds like a farce, but I swear it is absolute fact.
It’s about the entire admin rather than just the president AND what is best for the country’s economy despite the man. Reagan suffered from dementia and early stages of Alzehemiers increasingly throughout his tenure, but nevertheless a lot of good policy came out of that admin, paving the way for the end of the cold war and the 1984-2000 boom times. Peace and prosperity.
IMO the worst thing Trump did was increase military spending 10% instead of cut it, at a time when the country is technically insolvent. Can’t reform taxes or spending without first slashing defense. It’s evidence that the deep state really controls almost everything and the president doesn’t matter a lot. At least not without the support of congress. Same as seen with Obama. Elected on a platform of real change, in office Obama became a kind of war-complicit Goldman Sachs.
Accordingly, if you haven’t already, cut the US allocation (including the cash portion) of your portfolio down to about 5% as the market has been right to sell it down in 2017. All US asset classes have been falling in terms of most currencies this year and the trend is likely to accelerate as US political woes are becoming even worse that Europe’s, at least in the short & medium term. This would surely have very negative consequences for the US economy, US asset prices (at least in real terms) and US standard of living, as we’ve seen this movie before.