Sui generis freakshow
by digby
Here's Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal editorial board:
President Trump announced late Friday on Twitter—how else?—that he is replacing White House chief of staff Reince Priebus with Homeland Security secretary John Kelly. The decision was probably inevitable given how the President publicly humiliated Mr. Priebus in recent days, but this shuffling of the staff furniture won’t matter unless Mr. Trump accepts that the White House problem isn’t Mr. Priebus. It’s him.
Presidents get the White House operations they want, and Mr. Trump has a chaotic mess because he seems to like it. He likes pitting faction against faction, as if his advisers are competing casino operators from his Atlantic City days. But a presidential Administration is a larger undertaking than a family business, and the infighting and competing leaks have created a dysfunctional White House.
Perhaps Mr. Kelly, a retired Marine general, can impose some order on the staff. But then that’s what Anthony Scaramucci was supposed to do for the communications team, only to blow up in adolescent fashion this week by trashing Mr. Priebus and others in public. White House leakers then let it be known that Mr. Trump liked Mr. Scaramucci’s X-rated rant.
The reason Mr. Priebus wasn’t as effective as he could have been is because Mr. Trump wouldn’t listen to him and wouldn’t let him establish a normal decision-making process. Mr. Trump has a soft spot for military men so perhaps he’ll listen more to Mr. Kelly. He’d better, because on present course his Presidency is careening toward a historic reputation where names like Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon reside.
Uhm, Jimmy Carter wasn't a crook and an imbecile. Even Nixon wasn't an imbecile. That is an unfair comparison. He isn't careeing toward anything. His reputation is already way past anything we've ever seen before.
And no, he won't listen to Kelly. He doesn't listen to anyone who doesn't say what he wants to hear. The Mooch and Ivanka and Jared and God knows how many others outside the White House have easy access to him and he pays just as much attention to them. Probably Junior, Eric and Barron too --- when they have their meetings about what Dad needs to do to help the Trump Organization and the Kushner family. (That is job one, after all.)
Josh Marshall wrote a quick tweet-storm on this that's worth sharing:
Many people fail to see what an anomaly Trump is and it's a real problem. They are driven to put him in the same category as previous presidents or fit him into a convenient slot in the partisan ecosystem.
He's something new.
That's not to say that the conservative movement and the GOP aren't responsible for him. They are. They created the political environment and the propaganda mill that made him possible. He is their creature. But he is unique and it's important to recognize that and remember it. This is not normal. And anything can happen.
.
