I'm not a big fan of attempts to psychoanalyze public figures from afar…but boy, the video of that meeting where Trump sat there grinning as all his cabinet members declared his greatness and the honor of serving him — that was creepy. And it practically begs us to discuss what's going on inside a "boss" who would demand that…
Now, this…
- Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been busy backing off on promises. Mnuchin once said that the Trump administration would not give rich people a tax cut. Now, he's dying to do it. He's apparently also rescinding on Trump's behalf the pledge to not cut Social Security. The way he's going, I expect now to hear him say Trump has dropped plans to Make America Great Again. Jonathan Chait has more.
- Five weeks ago, Trump hailed the passage by the House of its American Health Care Act and called it a "well-crafted bill." Now, he says it's "mean" and it needs to be "more generous." Nothing changed in the bill so wha' happened? Even Sarah Kliff doesn't seem to know.
- Nate Silver says that Trump's antics are making Europe liberal again. Some of us are waiting for him to do that here. America First! America First!
- Ryan Lizza believes that if Trump isn't currently being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it's just a matter of time. No wonder there's speculation that Trump is thinking of firing the Special Counsel.
Stephen Colbert had Oliver Stone on the other night. Stone was plugging his new interview with Vladimir Putin and didn't — I thought — do a very good job of answering Colbert's questions about it. It sounds like the conversation just kind of sidesteps the allegations that Putin operates an oppressive regime that jails and maybe even terminates people who challenge him, reporters included. That would be like doing a twenty-hour interview with O.J. Simpson and just talking about football.
I think (maybe I'm wrong) that in the promos for Stone's appearance, he made some statement that a person would have to be stupid to believe Russia had influenced the last presidential election…but nothing like that was heard in the segment as aired. Anyone else hear what I think I heard?