Donald Trump very nearly had the special counsel investigating him fired, until the top White House lawyer told the president he would resign rather than give the order to the Justice Department. That’s the gist of the latest bombshell story from the New York Times, which reports President Trump told the White House counsel Don McGahn to have Robert Mueller, then just a few weeks on the job as the special counsel looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, dismissed.
According to the Times, the president listed three reasons for firing Mueller, which included the former FBI director’s resignation from Trump’s northern Virginia golf club several years earlier in a dispute over membership dues. Here’s more from the paper:
Neither McGahn nor President Trump’s personal lawyer, Ty Cobb, deny the claims in the story.
One More Thing—Here’s an important detail in the Times story: “The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice.”
Mueller learning about this attempt to fire him is made all the more interesting by this: President Trump’s own lawyers released a document on Thursday morning detailing how cooperative the president has been with Mueller’s investigators. Among the bullet points was that more than 20 White House aides have been interviewed by the special counsel’s team—including eight on McGahn’s staff in the White House counsel’s office.
In the brand new issue of the magazine, I take a deeper look at what the Trump administration’s response to the Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria this week tells us about the state of things in that region. Here’s an excerpt:
2018 Watch—Is an announcement for Mitt Romney for Utah Senate in the offing? UtahPolicy.com, citing “sources close to Mitt Romney”, says the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee “will announce next week that he is running for the U.S. Senate this year.”
Photo of the Day
Donald Trump shakes hands with SAP CEO Bill McDermott during a working dinner with European business leaders during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos on January 25, 2018. (Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
Davos Watch—President Trump had a warm bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump declared the United States would move their embassy to Jerusalem last December.
Netanyahu roundly praised the president for his pro-Israel stances, calling the embassy move “a historic decision that will be forever etched in the hearts of our people for generations to come.” The prime minister also thanked Trump for his strong response to Iranian aggression and his aggressively pro-Israel stance at the United Nations, which he called “a house of slander against Israel and the United States.”
“I’ve never seen the holistic alliance between the United States, Israel, and your other allies in the region as strong, as unified as it is under your leadership,” Netanyahu said.
Trump was no less friendly in his remarks. “Israel has always supported the United States, so what I did with Jerusalem was my honor,” he said. “And hopefully we can do something with peace. I would love to see it.”
Trump later struck a more pessimistic note about the potential for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, noting that Palestinians had “disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great Vice President to see them.”
“And we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support,” Trump said. “That money is on the table, and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace. Because I can tell you that Israel does want to make peace. And they’re going to have to want to make peace too, or we’re going to have nothing to do with it any longer.”
Feature of the Day—“Death With Dignity” on the final days of anti-euthanasia activist J.J. Hanson, by Bill McMorris at the Washington Free Beacon.
Davos Watch II—Trump also sat down with British prime minister Theresa May on Thursday at the World Economic Forum. The two leaders attempted to dispel rumors that their relationship had grown chilly recently. Earlier this month, President Trump cancelled a scheduled trip to London.
Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018
“The prime minister and myself have had a really great relationship, although some people don’t necessarily believe that. But I can tell you it’s true,” Trump said. “And I think the feeling is mutual from the standpoint of liking each other a lot. And so that was a little bit of a false rumor out there.”
May concurred, remarking on the “really special relationship” between the two countries, “standing shoulder-to-shoulder because we’re facing the same challenges across the world.”
Asked when he would make a state visit to the United Kingdom, Trump replied that “we’re going to be talking about it.”
You won’t want to miss this year’s Weekly Standard Summit at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs. Get a chance to hear from our lineup of speakers, including your favorite TWS writers like Steve Hayes, Fred Barnes, Bill Kristol, and even your trusted White House Watch correspondent. The event is May 17-20, and it’s a great opportunity to hear our insights and analysis on the news of the day—including what’s going on in the Trump White House.
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Song of the Day— “Fired” by Ben Folds
