Trump was in full on Twitter-rage this morning.
Until his staff reportedly distracted him from his depression and panic by taking him to the golf course. No, I'm not joking.
Trump started by attacking James Comey and Andrew McCabe (read the Tweets in reverse order, oldest on the bottom, newest on the top), goaded by Fox & Friends, as is his usual morning routine.
The guy literally has unlimited access to the largest, most well funded, most well equipped, most experienced, most extensive intelligence system in the world, literally in the history of the human race, with literally hundreds of top analysts, agents, scholars, directors, and briefing experts in every area of interest from military to history to political to demographic to law enforcement to the Constitution and government itself, he has all of this and more at his beck and call ... and he dismisses all of that for a bunch of vapid shallow talking heads on Fox News, because they will blow smoke up his ass by telling him what he wants to hear.
But it's that last one, that last Tweet this morning, that's the canary screaming in alarm as the mine fills with poison gas.
"Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!"
You have a president complaining like a petulant child about fairness. Fairness. It's not fair! It's not fair!
Did you ever hear any president talk like this? Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan, all the way back to Washington. FAIR? The hell is fair about politics and power and leadership?
This is the problem, the very crux of it, right here. The paranoia. The martyr complex. The entitlement. The arrogance. The idea that the people, the country, the world, aren't treating him the way he thinks he should be. What's under that is a man who thinks he's OWED respect and admiration and worship as his birthright, and he simply can't understand why everyone else can't see how wonderful he is. This is evident in every facet of Trump's personality, from his gold-plated penthouse to his trophy wives to appointing his family and flunkies to important positions to his childish public belittling of anyone he thinks might have crossed him.
He constantly makes false statements, like those above. But see, in his mind it's not lying. He BELIEVES what he's saying even when he knows it's not factually correct, because he simply can't accept anything that conflicts with his own fragile perception of himself and he's trying to warp reality into that image. If he says it, it must be true — even if it's not. That's why confronting him with facts doesn't work. That's why he's terrified of the US Intelligence community. That's why he fixated on Fox & Friends, because they are quite literally enablers of his deluded worldview — just like the servants and toadies who've surrounded him his whole life, paid to tell him how special and smart and handsome he is.
Exhibit A:
"Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans?"
The Mueller Team?
The one headed by ROBERT MUELLER? Conservative REPUBLICAN Robert Mueller? First appointed to Director of the FBI by REPUBLICAN George W. Bush? THAT Robert Mueller?
The Chain of Command that leads from Mueller to Trump is 100% Republican.
Trump just fired Mueller's boss, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, A REPUBLICAN.
McCabe worked for FBI Directory Christopher Wray, A REPUBLICAN.
The FBI answers to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, A REPUBLICAN.
Sessions answers (more or less) to Trump, another Republican.
No Republicans? Hell, James Comey IS A REPUBLICAN, or at least he was before becoming a registered Independent after Trump drove him out of the GOP.
Mueller's team, yes, some of them are Democrats. Some were Hillary Clinton supporters. No doubt. That's not illegal. Or anything to hide. This is still America, you're still free to chose your political ideology. And US law (so far) prohibits denial of employment based on political party. So, again, some of Mueller's team are Democrats, so what?
Some of Mueller's team are also Republicans, INCLUDING AS NOTED ABOVE ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE.
Most importantly, they are all among the very best legal experts in the country. They are, irrefutably, the nation's top legal professionals, chosen because they WERE professionals first and foremost, and Mueller himself has removed from his team anyone demonstrating unprofessional partisan bias (specifically against TRUMP) — which for some bizarre reason Republicans think must be evidence of Mueller's bias AGAINST TRUMP and what the fuck?
But again, to Trump, none of that matters.
Because it doesn't fit his view of himself, and anybody who would question him MUST perforce be THE ENEMY.
You see where this goes, right?
You know where this kind of thinking goes?
You should, because there are ample lessons from history.
Unchecked, what happens next when a paranoid, entitled martyr who thinks he's personally OWED respect and deference by everyone is a purge.
A purge of anybody who disagrees.
A purge of anyone who criticizes or questions or doesn't touch their forelocks.
We've seen this a thousand times before.
Trump and his enablers — like those from history of similar mindset — have made it abundantly clear: Anybody not of THE PARTY can't be trusted. This is the primary message of, "Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair?" And so, unchecked, what happens next is those who are not of THE PARTY must be removed from power. They must be purged from government, from military leadership, from law enforcement, and especially from public education.
You're seeing this happen. Right now. Bit by bit, piece by piece, and Big Orange Leader isn't trying to hide it — he's tweeting about it.
And what follows THAT, is purity. I.e. The Night of the Long Knives, either literally or metaphorically, those members of THE PARTY who aren't loyal enough, are removed from THE PARTY itself.
And what come after that? Well, if you've gotten this far, you know what comes next.
That's how it always goes. Every time.
And THIS, this is how it always starts. Right here.
~Jim Wright