The Trumpist Regime Is Falling Apart. Of Course, It Has Been Since Its First Day

David Nakamura's piece on White House neo-Nazi Stephen Miller, No Consequences For White-Supremicist Ties, in the Washington Post over the Thanksgiving holiday, was a far cry from the OpEd penned by former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer. "In case there were any doubts over his White House standing," wrote Nakamura, "Stephen Miller offered his critics the ultimate power move Tuesday as he boarded Air Force One to accompany President Trump to a campaign rally in South Florida. Miller’s reserved seat was another sign that the White House senior adviser has suffered no internal consequences in the two weeks since a social justice website published a trove of his old emails that showed him promoting political material and talking points linked to white-supremacist groups."

The disclosures in the exposé from the Southern Poverty Law Center have prompted scores of Democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups to publicly demand his resignation over what they view as smoking-gun evidence that the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies are rooted in white nationalist ideologies.

But the White House has vigorously defended Miller, one of Trump’s longest-serving and most influential aides, and congressional Republicans are staying mum, signaling that they will not break with the president over the revelations at a time when Trump is eager to demonstrate momentum in stemming illegal immigration.

Navy Secretary-- former Navy Secretary; Trump fired him Sunday-- Richard Spencer wants to share what he learned about working inside the Trumpist Regime. It's been a quandary for me since Trump took over the government how any self-respecting patriotic American could work for him. I spoke with an official at the Department of Justice a few days ago who had called me to get some help on a drug scam that we may all be reading about in a year or two. At the end of our conversation I asked him how he could work for Trump. He said he doesn't. He works for America and the American people.

Spencer served in the Marine Corps from 1976 to 1981 and then worked for a series of banksters, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, A. G. Becker, Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch. Trump appointed him Secretary of the Navy in 2017 and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 1, 2017. Here's his OpEd:

The case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was charged with multiple war crimes before being convicted of a single lesser charge earlier this year, was troubling enough before things became even more troubling over the past few weeks. The trail of events that led to me being fired as secretary of the Navy is marked with lessons for me and for the nation.

It is highly irregular for a secretary to become deeply involved in most personnel matters. Normally, military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away. A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others. Our system of military justice has helped build the world’s most powerful navy; good leaders get promoted, bad ones get moved out, and criminals are punished.

In combat zones, the stakes are even higher. We train our forces to be both disciplined and lethal. We strive to use proportional force, protect civilians and treat detainees fairly. Ethical conduct is what sets our military apart. I have believed that every day since joining the Marine Corps in 1976.

We are effective overseas not because we have the best equipment but because we are professionals. Our troops are held to the highest standards. We expect those who lead our forces to exercise excellent judgment. The soldiers and sailors they lead must be able to count on that.

Earlier this year, Gallagher was formally charged with more than a dozen criminal acts, including premeditated murder, which occurred during his eighth deployment overseas. He was tried in a military court in San Diego and acquitted in July of all charges, except one count of wrongfully posing for photographs with the body of a dead Islamic State fighter. The jury sentenced him to four months, the maximum possible; because he had served that amount of time waiting for trial, he was released.

President Trump involved himself in the case almost from the start. Before the trial began, in March, I received two calls from the president asking me to lift Gallagher’s confinement in a Navy brig; I pushed back twice, because the presiding judge, acting on information about the accused’s conduct, had decided that confinement was important. Eventually, the president ordered me to have him transferred to the equivalent of an enlisted barracks. I came to believe that Trump’s interest in the case stemmed partly from the way the defendant’s lawyers and others had worked to keep it front and center in the media.

After the verdict was delivered, the Navy’s normal process wasn’t finished. Gallagher had voluntarily submitted his request to retire. In his case, there were three questions: Would he be permitted to retire at the rank of chief, which is also known as an E-7? (The jury had said he should be busted to an E-6, a demotion.) The second was: Should he be allowed to leave the service with an “honorable” or “general under honorable” discharge? And a third: Should he be able to keep his Trident pin, the medal all SEALs wear and treasure as members of an elite force?

On Nov. 14, partly because the president had already contacted me twice, I sent him a note asking him not to get involved in these questions. The next day, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone called me and said the president would remain involved. Shortly thereafter, I received a second call from Cipollone, who said the president would order me to restore Gallagher to the rank of chief.

This was a shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review. It was also a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.

Given my desire to resolve a festering issue, I tried to find a way that would prevent the president from further involvement while trying all avenues to get Gallagher’s file in front of a peer-review board. Why? The Naval Special Warfare community owns the Trident pin, not the secretary of the Navy, not the defense secretary, not even the president. If the review board concluded that Gallagher deserved to keep it, so be it.

I also began to work without personally consulting Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on every step. That was, I see in retrospect, a mistake for which I am solely responsible.

On Nov. 19, I briefed Esper’s chief of staff concerning my plan. I briefed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney that evening.

The next day, the Navy established a review board to decide the status of Gallagher’s Trident pin. According to long-standing procedure, a group of four senior enlisted SEALs would rule on the question. This was critical: It would be Gallagher’s peers managing their own community. The senior enlisted ranks in our services are the foundation of good order and discipline.

But the question was quickly made moot: On Nov. 21, the president tweeted that Gallagher would be allowed to keep his pin — Trump’s third intervention in the case. I recognized that the tweet revealed the president’s intent. But I did not believe it to be an official order, chiefly because every action taken by the president in the case so far had either been a verbal or written command.

The rest is history. We must now move on and learn from what has transpired. The public should know that we have extensive screening procedures in place to assess the health and well-being of our forces. But we must keep fine-tuning those procedures to prevent a case such as this one from happening again.

More importantly, Americans need to know that 99.9 percent of our uniformed members always have, always are and always will make the right decision. Our allies need to know that we remain a force for good, and to please bear with us as we move through this moment in time.

Extraordinary! What could Trump possibly do without the Stephen Millers of this world-- the Heinrich Himmlers, the Hermann Görings, the Walther Funks, Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormanns and, eventually the Speers and Eichmanns... Yesterday, on CNN's Newsroom, ex-Congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA)-- who retired last year in disgust over Trump-- claims that in private, his former colleagues are "'wrestling' with whether it was more important to win their next election or preserve their legacy for years to come... Dent said he would have certainly 'voted for the impeachment inquiry based on the facts as I understand them now' and 'would probably support' the impeachment of Trump." He said Republicans members are basically afraid of the party's base voters but "there’s no question, having spoken to many of them privately, they’re absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the president’s behavior. They resent being put in this position all the time." They'll resent it for more when they lose their seats next November.

Trump Could Probably Get Pizzella Confirmed-- But Might Lose The Senate In 2020 Because Of It

Pizzella has no problem working for crooks and scumbags

Have you noticed that when Trump fires someone, he then tends to do two things: replace them with someone much worse and give them the title of "acting"-whatever. Acting this or acting that doesn't have to be confirmed by the Senate and even this McConnell-run Trump-enabling Senate wouldn't want to go on record confirming some of the criminals and fascists Trump is putting into government positions. Sunday, we took a look at the Democratic senators who voted to confirm Alex Acosta as Labor Secretary. Four of these Trump's-Democrats were defeated-- in the midst of a purported "blue wave." I don't doubt Trump and McConnell could get all his nominees through... but no one wants that on their record for the next time they have to face the voters. Take Acosta's unsavory replacement, Patrick Pizzella, a total slime ball lobbyist. "In the late 1990s, his clients included a Russian front group, the government of the Marshall Islands and a trade association fighting against the minimum wage in a U.S. commonwealth. For these and other clients, he worked with Jack Abramoff, who was at the forefront of a corruption scandal in the 2000s that ultimately resulted in 21 convictions and major reforms to lobbying laws." It also resulted in several members of Congress (Senator Conrad Burns and Rep. Richard Pombo, for example) losing their seats, more "voluntarily" retiring-- including GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay-- and at least one GOP committee chairman going to prison.

Pizzella has given thousands of dollars in legalistic bribes to Republican organizations and to Republican members of Congress and Republican candidates-- from Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, John Boehner, Tom Tancredo, Barbara Comstock and anyone else willing to trade votes and influence for cash. By not naming him actual Secretary of Labor-- forcing a contentious debate and Senate vote-- voters will never know, at least for sure, if vulnerable Trump allies like Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Martha McSally (R-AZ), David Perdue (R-GA), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) would actually vote for some as obviously unfit as Patrick Pizzella.

Pizzella, who has been serving as the deputy secretary of labor under Acosta, was appointed to the Federal Labor Relations Board by President Barack Obama in 2013. He previously served as the assistant secretary of labor for administration and management for eight years under President George W. Bush.

Prior to that appointment, Pizzella was as a lobbyist at Preston, Gates & Ellis, which would later combine with another lobbying firm to form K&L Gates. Abramoff also worked at the firm, whose dozens of clients included several foreign entities.

Documents obtained by OpenSecrets show that Pizzella was one of the lobbyists who worked on behalf of a shell corporation connected to the Russian government in the late 1990s. He was listed in a 1997 lobbying disclosure form as the “director of coalitions” for Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., a Bahamas-based organization working closely with the Russian oil company Naftasib, which was itself a close affiliate of the Russian government.

Working alongside Abramoff and others, Pizzella helped Chelsea Commercial advocate for “various commercial business enterprises, including investments in Russian businesses.”

The Department of Labor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pizzella’s lobbying ties to Chelsea Commercial Enterprises.

Another client that paid Preston, Gates & Ellis more than $2.3 million between 1999 and 2000 was the Western Pacific Economic Council, a trade association of companies with manufacturing centers in the Northern Mariana Islands.The archipelago located north of Guam is a U.S. commonwealth.

Low wages and little enforcement of labor laws made the commonwealth an attractive destination for garment factories, who could still tag their merchandise as Made in the USA. In the late 1990s, minimum wage on the islands was $3.05 compared to a federal minimum wage of $5.15, a concern for both humanitarian groups worried about inhumane conditions and labor groups who worried about outsourcing.

Pizzella was among the lobbyists from Preston, Gates & Ellis who worked to oppose two bills that would have extended U.S. minimum wage laws to the islands. Neither bill made it to a vote.




Pizzella’s connections to Abramoff and record on the minimum wage came up during his confirmation hearing to become deputy secretary in July 2017. In response to a question from former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), Pizzella said he was not aware of any substandard labor conditions in the Northern Mariana Islands while his firm was lobbying there.

“I was not aware of any such thing,” Pizzella said. “I did not know. I just learned that 21 of Mr. Abramoff’s colleagues were also convicted of wrongdoing. I was not one of them.”

Abramoff and his associates ultimately fell into trouble after they conspired to swindle Native American tribes that had contracted the firm for help in establishing casinos. Abramoff’s tactics included coordinating lobbying against his own clients so he could ask for more money for their services.

Abramoff and his related organizations ultimately reaped $85 million from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Louisiana Coushatta tribe and other tribal groups.

Pizzella lobbied on behalf of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw in 1999 and 2000, but was never implicated in his former colleague’s wrongdoing.

Pizzella also registered as a foreign agent for the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2000, working to convince Congress to relocate and compensate the indigenous peoples for damages stemming for atomic weapons testing in 1946.

The new acting secretary is the latest former lobbyist to gain a seat in the presidential cabinet. Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was a lobbyist for the defense giant Raytheon. Andrew Wheeler, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, lobbied for Murray Energy, the coal company owned by magnate Robert Murray. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt was a lobbyist for the oil and gas industry.

Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, oversaw lobbying efforts at drug company Eli Lilly but never registered as a lobbyist with Congress.

Maybe this kind of stuff helps explain why all 4 of the top Democratic contenders are beating Trump in the just-released NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Republican voters don't care about this kind of thing at all-- it's part of being on a team-- but independent voters can't stand it and it's part of why Trump is doing so badly among them and why he's so likely oo lose in 2020-- even if the Trump Recession hasn't kicked in by election day.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I met with Mr. Ho Chi Minh. He told me he knew nothing about American POWs being forced to play Russian Roulette and being kept in tiger cages. And I believe him. Tremendous guy. Writes me beautiful letters.
-President Donald Trump, on returning from Saigon, sometime in 1969

Just so you know, the above quote is fictional. I feel I have to make that perfectly clear since it is all too believable that if Señor Trumpanzee had been leading our country 50 years ago, it would be a true quote. As evidence, we have the reality of President Trump, here in 2019. That is all the evidence we need.

In the sad reality of 2019, President Trollface of course sides with homicidal maniac dictators; people Ho Ch Minh might even find distasteful. Trump envies them. Trump likes their style and he is the head of the political party that leads all others when it comes to dispensing human misery and death. Just look at his cabinet appointees, all joyfully approved by the republican-led $enate, of course. For example his newly $enate-approved dirty coal guy Andrew "Andy Strip Mines" Wheeler as the new administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Yeah, let's heat up the atmosphere and pollute our air and water even more! Wheeler's yet another in a longer and longer growing line of appointees put in (Putin) place to destroy another sector of American life. He joins Education Secretary Betsy "Kidnapping For Fun & Profit" DeVos whose chosen mission is to destroy what's left of our educational system so that American kids have a third world future of being poorly educated (Trump loves the poorly educated) worker-bees/slaves. There's also child abuser Kirstjen "Kristy Kage Kween" Nielsen at Homeland Security, Rick "I can't count to 3" Perry as Secretary Of Energy. Then there's Secretary Of Transportation Elaine Chao who's married to Mitch McConnell, so that says enough about her morals right there. Let's not forget such fine luminaries as racist Jeff Sessions, a favorite son of Alabamy. Who else but a racist would a republican president want heading up his "Justice" Department. Oh and don't forget Mike Pence, Trump's Gay Torture Czar. It's easy to conclude that Trump wistfully wishes that Dr. Josef Mengele was available to head up Health And Human Services.

So, how can it be any shock at this point when Trump shrugs off what was done to Otto Warmbier? In fact, you can bet that it's all a big laugh at the White House this week. You can easily visualize Trump, who makes fun of a disabled reporter, making fun of how Otto Warmbier was returned from North Korea in a brain-dead vegetative state, his teeth yanked with pliers. Hilarious. Maybe he even had McConnell over for some toasts and laughs about it. Trump has made it clear that he greatly envies the heads of nations that can get away with killing their own people. He settles for doing it indirectly though with his sociopathic appointees and the policies implemented by their departments. He obviously got a charge out of hearing the news that one of his other buddies, Philippines dictator Rodrigo Duterte shoots his victims himself. As Rudy Giuliani would say, "That's a leader!"

None of this is going to change unless American citizens make the "very fine people" of both parties very, very, extremely very, uncomfortable about their not ridding us of this plague. As FDR said, the public has to "make me do it." In America, people have to make their government do what they want done. If we remain passive and we don't, then we are guilty of tacit approval at the least. We can't sit back and expect our so-called representatives to actually represent us. The vast majority of the nation's politicians don't see that as even a small part of their jobs. They are too busy dialing for dollars.

I met with Mr. Idi Amin. At first, I thought he was the butler or something, but he's the leader, the leader of his country! Can you believe that? He's really black. What a world! I asked him about those stories that he cooks and eats his people. He said "No." And I believe him. Wonderful guy. Tremendous guy. He writes me beautiful letters. Had me over for some great hamberders.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

It doesn't matter if The Diaper Don has a new Chief Of Staff by the time you read this or not. If you're enough of a masochist that you might want the job next time, which is sure to be very soon, just keep tonight's meme handy. Just remember, you might have to swear allegiance to the KKK, have practice with spoon-feeding ground up KFC, be able to tolerate hearing FOX "News" at max volume, and be able to change diapers the size of a queen-sized bedspread at a moment's notice at oval office changing station without making a mess.

Personally, I hope Squeaky Fromme gets the job. I know I don't want it... Although, I do remember having a boss in my music business career who had a lot of the same characteristics as Trumpanzee. Whenever he yelled to his Executive Assistant for coffee, she would cheerfully make it and hand deliver it, stirring it with a smile, after spitting in it. I could do that.

In The Time Of Trump...

In the time of Trumpanzees I was a monkey. What about you? Bill Graves was the governor of Kansas from 1995 until 2003, a mainstream Republican. People liked him; he was reelected with 74% of the vote. Yesterday he endorsed Democrat Laura Kelly-- no relation to Chief of Staff Bill Kelly who famously said about Trump: "He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had."-- to be Kansas' next governor instead of neo-fascist Kris Kobach, the GOP nominee. "Laura Kelly is the only Democrat I have ever endorsed for public office," said Graves. "And the reason I’m doing that now is because I believe so much is at stake in the state of Kansas. I have known Laura for over thirty years. She has all the qualities and all the capabilities that we are looking for to lead the state during this difficult time and to reestablish the state to what it once was." Maybe that's why he endorsed her and maybe he endorsed her for the same reason General Bill Kelly said Trump is an idiot. Fear for our country that the fascists are about to take over.

Fear is the name of Bob Woodward's new book. I haven't read it yet. But I'm going to Istanbul soon-- long flight-- and I will on the plane. Meanwhile, I'll just have to make do with today's Washington Post preview by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa. They wrote that Woodward's 448-page book "paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals [and] "depicts Trump’s anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for entire days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, 'Everybody’s trying to get me'-- part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixon’s final days as president." I guess this previously untold scene from Fear would be a good way to eventually start the movie about the end of Trump's illegitimate presidency:

John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So, on Jan. 27, the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to try to make his point.

In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.

“This thing’s a goddamn hoax,” Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, “I don’t really want to testify.”

...[Trump, who had refused to be interviewed for the book] called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a “bad book,” according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be “tough,” but factual and based on his reporting.


A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.



Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.

At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds vs. 15 minutes from Alaska, according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.

“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.

After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like-- and had the understanding of-- ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’”

In Woodward’s telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump’s actions and expressed dim views of him. “Secretaries of defense don’t always get to choose the president they work for,” Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump’s tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.

Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

Reince Priebus, Kelly’s predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop,” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.”

Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was “‘like a little rat. He just scurries around.’”

Few in Trump’s orbit were protected from the president’s insults. He often mocked former national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, “like a beer salesman.”

Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: “I don’t trust you. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations. … You’re past your prime.”

A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father’s military rank and leaving others behind.

Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: “No, Mr. President, I think you’ve got it reversed.” The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.

“Oh, okay,” Trump replied, according to Woodward’s account.

With Trump’s rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly.

Woodward describes an alliance among Trump’s traditionalists--— including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the president’s former top economic adviser-- to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.

“It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually,” Porter is quoted as saying. “Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken.”

After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.

Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.

Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: “Why aren’t we getting this done? Do your job. It’s tap, tap, tap. You’re just tapping me along. I want to do this.”

Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: “I can stop this. I’ll just take the paper off his desk.”

Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.

Cohn came to regard the president as “a professional liar” and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump’s handling of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.

Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that “both sides” were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Woodward’s account.

When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, “This is treason,” and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn’s horror at Trump’s handling of the tragedy — and shared Cohn’s fury with Trump.

“I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.

Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump’s orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump’s first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the president’s lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.

At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, “This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.”

Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodward’s book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump’s handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.

In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Korea’s dictator “Little Rocket Man” in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: “This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.”

The book also details Trump’s impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become America’s longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.

“The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you,” Trump told them. “They could do a much better job. I don’t know what the hell we’re doing.” He went on to ask, “How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?”

The president’s family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward’s account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.

Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.

“You’re a goddamn staffer!” Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. “You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!”

Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”

Such tensions boiled among many of Trump’s core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as “natural predators.”

“When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody,” Priebus says.

Hovering over the White House was Mueller’s inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?”

Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was “like a kick in the nuts,” according to Woodward.

The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.

Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’”

“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.

Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”

But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.

“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.

“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”

The next morning, Dowd resigned.

Last Supper I and II by Nancy Ohanian

Pruitt Will Be The Gift, Politically Speaking, That Keeps On Giving, Right Through 2019

The Senate should have listened back then

On his last day in office, Scott Pruitt was still working to screw the American people-- for generations to come. According to a report this morning from the NY Times, on Friday, in his final hours in office, the EPA granted "a loophole that will allow a major increase in the manufacturing of a diesel freight truck that produces as much as 55 times the air pollution as trucks that have modern emissions controls." That followed "intense lobbying by a small set of manufacturers that sell glider trucks, which use old engines built before new technologies significantly reduced emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide that are blamed for asthma, lung cancer and other ailments." Scott Pruitt (and Donald Trump)-- always looking out for more effective ways to destroy life on the planet earth.

Susan Collins (R-ME) had the good sense to vote against confirming Pruitt, but, alas, to no avail. Two right-wing fake Democrats, Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Joe Manchin (WV) voted with the GOP to confirm, as they do so frequently, and Joe Donnelly hid under his bed and refused to come out to vote. So much damage could have been avoided. The case to back grotesquely bad Democrats is always... "the confirmations." It was Bay of Arizona's argument today on Twitter when I wrote that I could see supporting every horrible, worthless Democrat for the sake of checking Trump, except one-- Kyrsten Sinema.

You can't imagine how much worse Sinema will be than Manchin and Heitkamp

We haven't heard the last of Pruitt yet. All those investigations aren't going away and some of the ethics ones will likely turn into criminal ones. Politico: "Pruitt is still facing more than a dozen federal probes from his tenure as EPA administrator, and EPA’s watchdog and congressional investigators are promising to continue looking into his long list of ethical woes and lavish spending allegations. Those investigations have already prompted Pruitt to turn to an outside attorney for advice and set up a legal defense fund before his resignation."

EPA’s inspector general expects to finish and release as many as four separate reports on Pruitt this summer, according to a spokesman.

An investigation into Pruitt’s security detail may wrap up as early as this month, and the watchdog expects to complete work in August on its audit of Pruitt’s 2017 travel and the use of a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act to give raises to close aides. And a separate probe into law enforcement pay will likely conclude in two to three months...

Those IG reports could provide fresh ammunition for Pruitt’s critics, but if they find evidence that laws were broken, they must hand the evidence to the Attorney General to decide whether to prosecute.

Pruitt confirmed in May that he had formed a legal defense fund, though Democrats and outside groups raised concerns about the possible conflicts of interest that could arise if companies or industries made donations to that fund, and whether its operation would be sufficiently transparent.

Five House Democrats later asked the Justice Department and FBI to open a criminal investigation into whether Pruitt’s activities were used to enrich himself and his family-- such a probe would not necessarily be disclosed publicly.

Other investigations continue as well. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is looking into allegations Pruitt retaliated against employees who questioned his spending and management habits. And the Washington Post reported on Thursday that the White House Office of Management and Budget has determined the $43,000 private phone booth Pruitt installed in his office violated the law. The Government Accountability Office has previously said the purchase was illegal.

Remember all those ridiculous media reports-- actual "fake news"-- absurdly claiming that Pruitt had resigned. What kind of stupid is that? All their readers and viewers children who have to be shielded from something as unpleasant as the word "fired?" I was doing a radio interview when the host interrupted with the breaking news and read it as it was coming off the transom, including "resigned." I started laughing. It wasn't until Friday that news sources started acknowledging that Trumplandia realized they couldn't afford to keep him on any longer and that Kelly and other persuaded the Imbecile-in-Chief to let him go. Being an incredible coward-- as most bullies are-- Trump hid upstairs under his bed as Kelly called Pruitt and told him to send in his resignation letter.

Bloomberg reported that "Pruitt didn’t want to leave his post and was described as being devastated that he had to resign, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a personnel matter. Apparently someone told Señor Trumpanzee Pruitt ordering his staff to alter his public schedule to shield some meetings from public view-- now why, oh why, would he do that?-- "could be a criminal violation of the Federal Records Act." Trump doesn't give a hoot about graft and corrupt-- after all, he sets the pace in America's first actual kleptocracy-- as long as no one gets caught. Getting caught as the straw that broke the trumpanzee's back. President Gas announced that "Pruitt chose to resign because he felt he was a distraction."

Has Scott Pruitt Already Caught Up With Betsy DeVos As The Worst In Trumpanzee's Cabinet?

Forget about Pruitt using his influence-- and an EPA employee-- to buy a used mattress from a Trump hotel (notorious for bed-bugs) and as a realtor. And forget about Pruitt using an aide to find "a business opportunity" for his wife with Chick-fil-A. And, yes, it was a different EPA staffer from the one looking at the used mattresses. The Washington Post did report that "Pruitt’s efforts on his wife’s behalf-- revealed in emails recently released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Sierra Club-- did not end with Chick-fil-A. Pruitt also approached the chief executive of Concordia, a New York nonprofit organization. The executive, Matthew Swift, said he ultimately paid Marlyn Pruitt $2,000 plus travel expenses to help organize the group’s annual conference last September."

I'm guessing that all this what called Iowa Senator Joni Ernst (R) to call Pruitt "about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own cabinet."

Pruitt’s tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency is under intensifying scrutiny, with at least 10 federal investigations probing his $50-per-night rental of a bedroom in a Capitol Hill condominium from a lobbyist, his frequent taxpayer-funded travel and his spending decisions.

...Ernst said she was frustrated with Pruitt’s handling of the U.S. biofuel mandate, arguing that he is undermining President Donald Trump’s campaign commitment to support ethanol.

“Mr. Pruitt is breaking our president’s promises to farmers,” Ernst said at the Platts Energy Podium in Washington. Maybe at some point Trump “will say it’s time for you to go, but that is up to the president.”

With someone “going against the campaign promises that are made,” Ernst added, “I don’t know how long that relationship can last.”

The comments from Ernst coincided with sharp words from her fellow Iowa Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, who told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday that Pruitt “has betrayed the president.”

Neither went as far as calling for Pruitt’s resignation. Grassley said he would reserve judgment until after he’s reviewed a forthcoming White House outline of planned biofuel policy changes.

Trump administration officials are slated to detail those policy changes following weeks of negotiations by the Agriculture Department and the EPA, including a plan to lift summertime restrictions on the sale of a higher ethanol gasoline blend known as E15. But that outline has been delayed for weeks amid sharp disagreements over the possible changes.

Farm-state lawmakers have blasted the EPA’s moves to more liberally waive small refiners from annual biofuel blending quotas, following a federal court decision last year. Ernst said she was also frustrated Pruitt was pursuing a change that could allow exported biofuel to count toward compliance with the domestic blending mandates, after rejecting the idea in a letter to her last year.

Farmers nationwide rallied behind Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, forming part of the rural-voter bedrock that put him in the White House. But fissures in that rural support have developed over biofuels and trade initiatives that threaten agricultural exports.

“Right now, support is wavering in Iowa; people are really worried,” Ernst said. The White House’s planned biofuel policy changes “could further destroy our corn and biofuels demand, and at a time when our farmers are hurting.”

And, of course, it isn't just Republicans criticizing Pruitt. This morning Omaha Democratic candidate Kara Eastman told us that "Our children are our most valuable resources. As someone who has been fighting to ensure all children have access to safe and healthy homes that are free from toxics such as lead, mold and radon, I have seen the impacts that solid EPA programs can have in communities like Omaha. Mr. Pruitt is not only unethical in his business practices, but a poor choice as a leader when it comes to protecting our kids. We simply deserve better."

Tom Guild, the progressive candidate for the Oklahoma City seat (OK-05) was aware of the Pruitt dangers before most of us. And Pruitt's employment in the Trump cabinet hasn't made him feel any better about him. Guild: "Scott Pruitt is an embarrassment to the state of Oklahoma and America. He feeds on the sewer water beneath the streets of the nation’s capital. He is involved in so many scandals and ethics probes, it is nearly impossible to follow the bouncing ball. Draining the swamp is a bad joke as long as Pruitt holds high office at the EPA. It’s bad enough that he is charting a course to do permanent and irreversible damage to America and Planet Earth, but he is also lacking in integrity, common sense, good judgment, and scruples. Thinking of Pruitt automatically initiates my gag reflex. If there is anyone who epitomizes the worst excesses and screaming hubris of our national government, Pruitt takes the prize. He needs to lift up the rock he was hiding under, go back into hiding, and stay there. He doesn’t have the sense God gave a peanut (with apologies to members of the peanut family.) I’ve run out of adjectives and nouns to describe his behavior and persona. Now we know why some wild animals devour their young!"

Trump Tries Smearing Tester

Señor Trumpanzee has never been one for nuance, so when Putin's moron disguised as a president tweeted to his equality stupid supporters that Jon Tester should resign... well what more could anyone expect. He's un-nuanced and he's a more... but he has an instinct for savagery... and he senses what he perceives as blood in the water. He was bellowing on Saturday morning that the "great people of Montana will not stand for this kind of slander when talking of a great human being. Admiral Jackson is the kind of man that those in Montana would most respect and admire, and now, for no reason whatsoever, his reputation has been shattered."

So why doesn't Trumpanzee renominate him to be head of the Veterans' Administration? Sam Stein made the same argument:

Johnny Isakson of Georgia is chairman of the veterans’ affairs committee and a pretty right wing Republican. On Saturday, while Trump was smearing Tester and demanding he resign, Isakson was voicing support for Tester. Trump won Montana 279,240 (56.2%) to 177,709% (35.7%). In 2012 Tester was barely reelected-- 236,123 (48.6%) to 218,051 (44.6%) against Republican Denny Rehberg. He originally defeated Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in 2006 even more narrowly, 198,302 votes (49%) to 195,455 (48%). Trump's goal Saturday was to fire up the Republican base in Montana so they would come out and vote against Tester in November.

In fact, right-wing groups allied with Trump have already been smearing Tester with misleading ads, like this one:



Isakson may or may not have found out that Trump was spreading his poison by tweet when his office said he didn't have a problem with how Tester had handled the Ronny Jackson affair.

“Senator Isakson has a great relationship with Senator Tester,” a spokeswoman for Isakson told CNN following Trump's tweets on Saturday. “He doesn’t have a problem with how things were handled. I don’t know for sure but highly doubt he’s seen the president’s tweets this morning.”

Tester’s staff compiled a report on the allegations against Jackson, which cited claims made by more than 20 people, including an accusation that Jackson "wrecked" a government vehicle after becoming intoxicated at a Secret Service going-away party, and a claim that he drunkenly banged on the hotel door of a female staffer during an official overseas trip during the Obama administration.

Trump, of course, is trying to imply the allegations against Jackson were made by Tester. They weren't-- and Tester made that clear at every point. They testimony against Johnson were made by men and women who worked under him and they were being investigated by the committee. "Tester, against Trump's criticism and backlash from other GOP lawmakers, has maintained that his actions are 'not political.' ...I am focused on making sure that we have the best person possible to run the VA,' he told Politico. 'It’s a very, very important agency.'"

After Pompeo Is Confirmed We'll Be Hearing Lots About "Bloody Gina"

I'm really looking forward to former Democrat Joe Lieberman's OpEd on why Democrats need to confirm Torture Princess Gina Haspell. He hasn't published it yet, just one called Senate should fulfill constitutional duty, confirm Mike Pompeo. Pompeo has to move on the State before Haspell cn be voted on for his old job at the CIA. Lieberman hectored Democratic senators that the pro-Pompeo and anti-Pompeo votes are "breaking along partisan lines which is contrary to precedent for this important position and bad for our country because it sends a message of internal division to our allies and adversaries around the world." But he doesn't lecture the Republicans about serving the country by rejecting him-- only the Democrats about confirming him. "Pompeo’s academic and professional credentials," he insists, "are stellar. He graduated first in his class from West Point, and served as a U.S. Army cavalry officer. Later, he graduated from Harvard Law School, as an editor at the Harvard Law Review. Afterwards, he was successful in business, co-forming an aerospace company and serving as president of an oilfield equipment company. During Mike Pompeo’s three terms in the House of Representatives, he became known as a thoughtful voice on national security, serving on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Intelligence Subcommittee on the CIA. While in the House, he focused on homeland security and the War on Terror, sponsoring numerous bills to contain Iranian aggression. Nothing that indicates he would be a good Secretary of State.

For the last 15 months, Pompeo has served as director of the CIA. His tenure there has been considered broadly successful, including efforts to pare bureaucracy and squeeze North Korea’s supply routes. Pompeo delivered President Trump’s daily intelligence briefings, giving him insight about emerging security threats and how the president comprehends them. These briefings earned him the trust of the president, crucial to the success of any cabinet member. This president’s confidence in Pompeo is such that he dispatched Pompeo to handle the sensitive portfolio of meeting with North Korean despot Kim Jong Un earlier this month.

Given his strong background, Pompeo is certainly qualified to be secretary of State. His narrow path to confirmation in the Senate isn’t a reflection on his qualifications; instead, it reflects our country’s growing political polarization.

No-one doubts that had Democrats not driven Lieberman out of the Senate, he would be joining DINOs Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp in supporting the nomination. He insists that "the Advise and Consent clause has become increasingly used in these hyper-partisan times as another way for senators to prove their conservative or liberal bona fides to their political bases. This risks turning every nomination into an exercise in ideological posturing. It is time to time to return to the traditional understanding of 'advise and consent,' putting the national interest above partisanship-- and judging simply if the candidate can do the job. Director Pompeo has shown he can. He deserves confirmation."

So what about Gina? Did he read her college record from the University of Kentucky? How about her record as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency? There must be a reason that more than 100 retired admirals and generals are raising serious concerns about her.

I'd trust former CIA officer and torture whistleblower John Kiriakou, who personally knew her, far more than Lieberman. He told Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! that Haspel "tortured Just for the Sake of Torture." Perfect for Trump and his budding fascist state! And percent for Team Bolton! And Lieberman. What about Manchin and Heitkamp on this one?

He's not a big fan of Pompeo either but feels we could have done worse with that nomination "Gina Haspel, however, is a problem, a big problem. I’ve been talking about Gina Haspel for more than a year. She was a dreadful choice to be the deputy director. She’s a worse choice to be the director. I think it’s wonderful that there’s a possibility of a woman heading the CIA, but there are 50 different women who are qualified to lead the CIA. It shouldn’t be Gina Haspel... We did call her Bloody Gina. Gina was always very quick and very willing to use force. You know, there was a group of officers in the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, when I was serving there, who I hate to even make the accusation out loud, but I’m going to say it: who enjoyed using force. Yeah, everybody knew that torture didn’t work. That’s not even the issue. Lots of different things work. Was it moral, and was it ethical, and was it legal? I think the answers to those questions are very clearly no. But Gina and people like Gina did it, I think, because they enjoyed doing it. They tortured just for the sake of torture, not for the sake of gathering information."

[A] black site is a site that’s more or less off the books, meaning it doesn’t officially exist. It exists, but nobody is supposed to know that it exists. And in many cases, that includes the congressional oversight committees. So, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the CIA set up such black sites all around the world, with the idea being that if we captured someone from al-Qaeda or kidnapped someone from al-Qaeda, we could send him to one of these black sites, interrogate him without having to worry about the law, about ethics or morality or the FBI breathing down their backs. They could do whatever they wanted. And that’s how this torture program spiraled out of control. There were people who were murdered in the course of their interrogations.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Well, Gen. McMaster just exited. Who's next? White supremacist John Kelly? EPA head Scott Pruitt? Attorney General Sessions? Mail Order Bride Melania? Place your bets, ladies and gents! Chaos? What chaos? I see a near future when Señor Trumpanzee is all alone, huddled in a White House corner, talking manic gibberish to himself, as his friend Putin arrives with Sean Hannity.

The people have spoken.

Senators-- Democratic Senators-- Who Vote To Confirm Trump's New Cabinet Garbage Are Voting For Torture As A Legitimate Policy

Revolving Door by Nancy Ohanian

The Trump White Mad House is still a chaotic mess, in complete turmoil orchestrated my the fool Putin placed there. Supposedly, at least according to the Wall Street Journal John Kelly is staying on-- for now-- as chief of staff. H.R. McMaster, on the other hand, will be replaced as soon as Trump can persuade someone to take the job. This week a West Wing staffer in Señor Trumpanzee's White House was widely quoted saying that "This is the most toxic working environment on the planet... There's no leadership, no trust, no direction and at this point there's very little hope." Other heads on the chopping block-- reputations ruined because of their collaboration with the fascist clown-- include Ben Carson, David Shulkin, Steven Mnuchin, Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, Ryan Zinke and Vanessa Trump, estranged wife of Trumpanzee Jr., and others who have been using taxpayer dollars to live like royalty.

At least a half-dozen current or former Trump Cabinet officials have been mired in federal investigations over everything from high-end travel and spending on items such as a soundproof phone booth to the role of family members weighing in on official business. On Wednesday alone, newly disclosed documents revealed fresh details about spending scandals at both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

...The controversies surrounding members of Trump’s Cabinet have caused upheaval within the administration, prompting White House officials to scramble in an effort to avert any further political fallout and to summon agency leaders for face-to-face ethics meetings.

Meanwhile, Señor Trumpanzee is using Ivanka as a substitute for fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. CNN and Politico are both reporteing that Trump could have trouble getting new appointments confirmed. CNN was mild, reporting that Trumpanzee's "appetite for an ambitious shake-up of his Cabinet and other key advisers is already facing headwinds from inside his own administration and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump's nominee to run the CIA, Gina Haspel, is causing heartburn among Senate Republicans because of her role in overseeing an interrogation and detention program. Meanwhile, at least one Republican and a handful of Democrats in the narrowly divided Senate are already planning to oppose Mike Pompeo, Trump's nominee to succeed Rex Tillerson, who the President fired Tuesday from his post as secretary of state. There is also some trepidation among the national security establishment about the potential of hardliner John Bolton replacing H.R. McMaster, whose fate as national security adviser is in doubt, according to several sources. And some top Senate Republicans are warning the White House of overburdening lawmakers with too many nominations. 'With everything else we have to do around here, having the prospect of two additional confirmation fights perhaps is going to be a challenge,' said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican." Politico went much further with the idea of the Democrats actually being able to block the worst of the dreck Trump wants to bring into government.

The White House was hoping for a smooth 2018 on Capitol Hill. Instead, President Donald Trump is staring at two bitter confirmation fights-- and the possibility emboldened Democrats could block his new Cabinet nominees.

Trump’s decision to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Rex Tillerson at the State Department-- and to elevate Pompeo’s controversial deputy Gina Haspel, who hasn’t previously been confirmed-- has created a pair of high-stakes battles in the Senate, where the GOP enjoys a threadbare 51-49 advantage.

With Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) opposing both nominees and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) absent while he undergoes treatment for brain cancer, Trump will need Democrats to support his picks.

The looming struggle to get Cabinet replacements through underscores just how much the political calculus has changed for Trump since the early days of his administration, as Democrats look ahead to the midterms and throw off any semblance of cooperation with the White House.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for example, supported Pompeo to be CIA director, as did 14 of his colleagues in the minority. Democrats say Pompeo will fall far short of that-- if he gets any Democratic support at all.

“Both of them have serious questions to answer and neither confirmation is a sure thing,” Schumer told Politico in a statement.

Republicans agree that failed confirmation votes are a real possibility.

...Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Z), who serves on the Foreign Relations panel, has been privately cited by Democrats as a potential flip vote on both Pompeo and Haspel. A vocal Trump critic, he said he’s “looking into” Haspel’s record and wants to hear willingness from Pompeo to break with Trump on Russia.

“We need people who will stand up to the president, frankly, on some of these issues. I want to make sure he’s willing to do that,” Flake said in an interview.

...Trump’s demonstrated preference for unorthodox figures could leave some Democrats inclined to accept the pair, who few would label unqualified even if they disagree with them on policy.

Republicans also have the advantage of a cadre of Democratic senators facing reelection in 2018 in states Trump easily won: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. All four voted to confirm Pompeo at the CIA.

...Short of blocking the picks altogether, Democrats could still cause serious headaches for the White House throughout the process.

“The biggest danger for the White House is that both of these people are coming from inside the administration and are going to be asked to talk about what’s happened inside the administration during their confirmation hearings,” said Matthew Miller, who helped shepherd former Attorney General Eric Holder through his confirmation hearings and joined him at DOJ as a spokesman.

He pointed as an example to a Washington Post report from June 2017 that Trump complained to Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats early in his presidency about then-FBI Director James Comey’s handling of the Russia probe.

If Pompeo refuses to address that conversation, Democrats could use that as justification for voting against him, Miller said, since such questions go to how Pompeo reacted to presidential pressure while leading the CIA.

“If you invoke executive privilege at your oversight hearing, there’s nothing the senators can do to you,” Miller said. “In a confirmation hearing, you can lose votes over it.”

Is it a "purity test" to support and vote for Democrats who are not going to help block garbage nominees like Haspel and Bolton to influential posts? Fake Democrats like Heitkamp, McCaskill and Manchin are going to make the difference whether or not the U.S. goes back to torturing people.