February 18, 2019: Stupidity Will Define the Trump Administration

 

2/18/19: Historians will note someday that stupidity was one of the defining features of the Trump administration. 

On Monday, Roger Stone, the latest Trump adviser indicted in the Russia investigation and currently free on bail, decided it would be amusing to post a message and picture on Instagram. It tickled Stone to label the Special Counsel as “Deep State hitman Robert Mueller.” 

Stone must have chortled to himself. So far, so good. This would class as free expression. Next, he posted a photo of the judge who will be handling his case, who had released him Friday on bail, but under a partial gag order. In the corner, crosshairs showed beside the head of District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

 

Internet sleuths discovered that this same picture could be found on – among others – a conspiracy website with an anti-Semitic perspective and a pro-Russian site called, “Russia News Now.” 

Russians!! Again! 

Stone soon realized his mistake, or at least his alarmed defense lawyers did. First, he photo-shopped the crosshairs out of the picture. Then he freaked and deleted the whole mess. 

Judge Jackson, however, had been notified. Stone has been ordered to grace her court again Thursday.

 

In other “proof-of-stupid” news, Trump spent the morning at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Including Presidents’ Day, he has spent 172 days since taking office at various golf clubs, most of which he owns. This is not criminal stupidity. It is, however, gratuitous stupidity. Mr. Trump used to hate it when President Obama played golf “all the time.” 

When not busy lining up putts, the president tended to focus on tweeting, early, often, and late. One topic especially had him stewing: former Acting F.B.I. Director Andrew McCabe, who was popping up all over cable news. 

For that reason, at 7:15 a.m., in the president’s second tweet of the day, we had this: 

Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.....

 

Fifteen hours later, having spent the afternoon hinting he’d enjoy attacking Venezuela, Trump still had the red ass about McCabe. Trump turned to juvenile stupidity: “Remember this, Andrew McCabe didn’t go to the bathroom without the approval of Leakin’ James Comey!” 

See what he did! “Bathroom.” “Leakin’.” It’s like we have an immature 13-year-old in the Oval Office. 

As for Mr. McCabe, he spent a good part of Monday talking about his new book: The Threat: How the F.B.I. Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. First sentence: “Between the world of chaos and the world of order stands the rule of law.” There’s nothing juvenile about that line.