Trump’s only measure of value is personal loyalty. To him.
This Washington Post article about says it: Before Comey’s firing, Trump’s animus toward him boiled over into fury, officials say.
Trump had long questioned Comey’s loyalty and judgment, and was infuriated by what he viewed as the director’s lack of action in recent weeks on leaks from within the federal government. By last weekend, he had made up his mind: Comey had to go.
Note the order, even in the Post article.
The Post cites 30 separate sources corroborating sources. Thirty. While it’s scary that they felt they needed thirty, but it’s amazing that they got 30 people willing to talk. There must be an awful lot of people there who see Trump as deranged.
Or there’s this Post article: President was said to be frustrated by FBI director’s focus on Russia and lack of attention to leaks. Politico has a report of Trump screaming at the TV, although that isn’t sourced as completely as the Post articles.
I’ve complained that Trump represents our worst angels. That’s not exactly true. I don’t think that he’s working around our democratic institutions, sidestepping our common traditions, or even disagreeing with the Constitution and settled law.
After he fired Comey, I’m convinced that Trump isn’t ignoring any of that. He’s not pretending he’s ignorant. I believe that he really doesn’t have any idea what democracy is. And Trump remains deeply indifferent. To him, all that democracy stuff is just noise.
I believe that Trump’s only goal is to capture any federal agency or organization that touches him or his friends, to make sure he owns them completely, front to back. He wants to gut all the checks and balances that might possibly threaten him.
Look at his nominees. At first, it looked like a practical joke, where Trump was nominating the very worst person for each position. EPA? Nominate the guy who’s been suing them more than a dozen times. Education? Nominate the woman who hates the idea of public schools. Justice? How about an unreconstructed segregationist?
I don’t think he was just making Republican red-meat points. In every case, he’s working to subvert the central purpose of each agency. And it’s working. After firing all the ambassadors and every senior diplomat, and not replacing them, the State Department is now an unofficial arm of the Petroleum lobby. Trump made the chief alt-right political hack the White House National Security Advisor, and only fired him when he started to realize that Bannen really was more loyal to his (abhorrent) principles than to Trump. And just this week, Trump fired five EPA scientists — non-political experts in their fields — so they can be replaced with industry representatives.
He only appoints people who hate the agencies and don’t believe in their mission, or even their reason for existence. In each case, he’s working so that none of them can ever threaten him or his businesses (maybe his kids, too, although I’m not sure where they sit in his list of priorities). Firing Comey was completely in line with the Trump Doctrine. Remember when a couple of US Attorneys suggested they might investigate his businesses? Trump immediately fired all 46 US Attorneys, even though he had no reason and no replacements
He hasn’t replaced any of them since then, either.
Trump’s only measure is “Loyalty to Trump.” There is nothing in his mind like ‘non-partisan’, ‘professional’, or ‘independent’. Those are all synonyms for ‘not loyal’. Bannen had separate goals outside Trump, so he’s gone. All those career people with no loyalty? He’s purging them as he finds them.
Comey made it clear he wasn’t personally loyal at all. And that’s all that was on Trump’s mind. Despite what Trump wanted, and what Trump demanded, Comey didn’t jump behind Trump’s baseless claims about wiretapping. Comey didn’t let go of investigations Trump didn’t like. Not like Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who did exactly what Trump asked, even though it was illegal. And finally, Comey didn’t jump to focus on shutting down the leaks that have been nagging Trump’s worst decisions and actions.
Trump fired Comey because Trump was furious that Comey was disloyal. And maybe because Comey was getting more TV airtime than Trump. I doubt Trump had deeper motives, or had done any complex planning than he saw Deputy Director McCabe as someone clearly more loyal.
