Weekday Trumpdate gives you the latest on the ongoing catastrophe in the White House.
Trump has a mole, and that person wrote a nice little diary entry in The New York Times!
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
Using a phrase we’re all very familiar with here at The Stranger, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the op-ed was “a new low” for the NYT. Welcome to the club, Gray Lady!
Trump offered a response a few hours after the news broke:
TREASON?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
It’s not.
And then, as if we needed any more evidence to invoke the 25th Amendment, Trump launched into a rambling critique of the press and of “open boarders” in front of a pile of smiling Sheriffs:
NEW: President Trump responds to @nytimes op-ed by anonymous senior official in the Trump admin.:
“If the failing New York Times has an anonymous editorial… meaning gutless a gutless editorial, we’re doing a great job” pic.twitter.com/OqRCuD0crl
— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) September 5, 2018
And now, of course, Trump is rage-Tweeting at the Times. He wants them to rat on a source that he suggests doesn’t exist:
Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
If Trump has a question about the Times’ vetting process, he can submit it using the proper form, just like everyone else.
Now, for the real question: who’s the mole?
Every White House meeting in September. pic.twitter.com/m07T63H6XQ
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) September 5, 2018
Nobody knows yet, but CNN tells us how NYT op-ed editor Jim Dao went about securing the “lodestar:”
Many officials within the administration can be considered ‘senior,’ even if they do not work in the West Wing or interact directly with Trump.
‘The person contacted me through an intermediary,’ he said.
Dao said it happened ‘several days ago,’ declining to be more specific.
Many officials within the administration can be considered ‘senior,’ even if they do not work in the West Wing or interact directly with Trump.
Can’t wait until every member of Trump’s administration claims they were the #resistance mole in an attempt to wipe themselves clean:
“I was in the Resistance.”
“Really, what did you do?”
“I helped Marshal Petain.”
“What?”
“You wouldn’t believe the ghastly things the Germans wanted to do tha we stopped.”
“What?”
“We made rounding up the Jews much more efficient so non-Aryans weren’t punished.”
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) September 5, 2018
Meanwhile, Trump and General Mattis are on the outs again, per The Washington Post:
No matter their origins, the interactions described by Woodward are likely to fan friction between White House and Pentagon officials following months of speculation about a growing distance between Mattis and Trump. While the Pentagon has rejected the idea that policy differences have fueled any discord, State Department officials denied similar reports related to Tillerson until the day Trump fired him in a tweet.
According to the Times, Robert Mueller’s team seems to be focusing in on Roger Stone’s conspiracy theory friends to establish a connection between the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks:
Mr. Corsi, who has worked with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his Infowars operation, has dealt with Mr. Stone on and off for years. Mr. Corsi was also one of the people whom President Trump, before he was a candidate, contacted for information about former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate in pressing the false claim that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.
It’s the 593rd day of Trump’s presidency and treason season is coming into bloom.
