Remember how, when the Washington Post first reported that H.R. McMaster was on his way out the door at the White House, the administration insisted that further staff shakeups weren’t imminent?
And remember how everyone laughed at that assessment because every time anyone from this administration says that it’s always proven to be a lie almost immediately?
Yeah well guess what? McMaster has resigned. Here’s the New York Times (breaking their second “big league” story of the day):
Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Trump’s national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation, will resign and be replaced by John R. Bolton, a hard-line former United States ambassador to the United Nations, White House officials said Thursday.
General McMaster will retire from the military, the officials said. He has been discussing his departure with President Trump for several weeks, they said, but decided to speed up his departure, in part because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his conversations with foreign officials.
Note that last bolded bit. Now recall what we said last week after the WaPo story hit:
WaPo says Trump is “willing to take time executing the move because he wants to ensure both that the three-star Army general is not humiliated and that there is a strong successor lined up.” That’s according to five sources close to the situation.
Ironically, WaPo’s reporting may have just upended those plans. Trump will have to either deny this definitively or else go ahead and move forward with it.
Right. And that’s what just happened.
To be clear, this was already a hilarious story because if you recall, back in November multiple reports suggested that McMaster once called Trump an “idiot” with “the intelligence of a kindergartner” at a dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
But it got even funnier this week when “someone” leaked to the press that prior to the President’s call with Putin, Trump had been specifically instructed by his national security team not to congratulate the Russian dictator on his “election” win. In fact, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” was reportedly spelled out in all-caps.
Of course Trump didn’t heed that advice and congratulated Putin anyway, much to the chagrin of someone inside the White House who then took it upon themselves to tell the American public. As CNN noted:
The President often makes calls to foreign leaders while he is still in the residence during what has been dubbed “executive time.” National security adviser H.R. McMaster has been known to join Trump in the residence during these calls, and was present during his Tuesday morning call with Putin. According to the public schedule released by the White House Tuesday, the President was not scheduled to be in the West Wing until noon, when he greeted the Saudi crown prince.
But the administration wants you to know that McMaster’s Thursday departure definitely isn’t related to that, ok? Here’s the Times again:
Officials emphasized that General McMaster’s departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with none of the recrimination that marked Mr. Tillerson’s exit. They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump’s phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
“Believe them.”
For his part, Trump is pretty “pleased” with this and he needs you to understand that McMaster is still his “friend”:
So congrats to McMaster (“DO NOT CONGRATULATE”). Like Rex, he’s now free of this crazy bullshit and although we’re yet again left to bemoan the departure of one of the few remaining sane people at 1600 Penn., we can hardly blame these folks for getting out of dodge.
After all, history is not going to look kindly on anyone who goes down with this ship.
One more step closer to war
When Trump imposes ill-considered steel and aluminum tariffs, adult Gary Cohn resigns; Putin orders illegal use of Russian military-grade nerve gas-U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May accuses Russia and Putin, Rex Tillerson agrees and is fired, while Trump is reluctant to do so. Another adult gone. Trump advised not to congratulate Putin on his bogus re-election or to start a Trade War with China. Trump does both. Gen. H.R. McMaster resigns. Perhaps the last ‘adult’ gone. Is there a pattern here?
There’s one adult left. And his nickname is “Mad Dog.”
And Bolton has never met a man smarter than John Bolton. What a pompous douche bag.
that last photo in the column – trump’s hair – LOL! He tries to hard to cover it up and it looks like shit. so many of “his” generals are bald – wonder what he thinks about that – he is so afraid of being bald — it would have to look better than that crap on is head right now! Lunatic.
This is the worst day in the world since we dropped the second nuke on Japan in 1945. The first nuke was debatable the second was murder. Crazy is coming on a level that most of our citizens have probably never seen before. This could and probably will get very ugly and the republicans in our congress are going to sh*t their pants as this madman take us to the brink of war. One, just one fu*king mistake and millions of people WILL die, all because of some shady deal, or some pee tape this assh*le is trying to cover-up.
People wake the fu*k up and push everyone you know to scream for this menace to our world to be put down and now. Impeach this fu*ker now………….. John Bolton are you freaking kidding me !!!!!!! Do some research and see how insane this is. RIGHT NOW.
I guess you are too young to remember 9/11, and how America came together to fight the threat to the world posed by Saddam Hussein, and his weapons of mass destruction. It was a triumphant time, watching those statues topple in Baghdad, and the country is probably ready to relive that past glory.
Bolton is more insane than trump. Think about that. MORE insane than trump. The only way to stop Bolton is to stop trump. Paul Ryan et al, get off your pompous asses and put a stop to this. Mike Pence, you have the power to start the ball rolling without the delay of impeachment. If all you people in the Cabinet do not take action, you will have a lot of blood on your hands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton scroll down to read Criticism and everything thereafter! This appointment will bring War. Send emails, make phone calls, notify every politician you can find – stop Bolton and remove trump!
Unfortunately the number of rational folks in the cabinet is dwindling. The 25th Amendment is probably off the table.
It’s not so much ‘ The rats leaving a sinking ship ‘ , it’s more like ” The sinking ship is being left to the rats ” .
Said it was going to be crazy mustache.