There's Always a New Low for the Trump White House

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/09/bob-woodward-book-trump-kelly-mattis/569284/

There's Always a New Low for the Trump White House
Bob Woodward's latest book shows the administration is broken, and yet what comes next could be even worse.
David A. Graham
Sep 4, 2018

snip//

In addition to the “mentally retarded” slur—appalling in its own right—Trump also reportedly said, “ He’s this dumb Southerner … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.” The description shows the apparent disdain the president holds not just for his aides, but perhaps for many of his core voters. (Trump should take note that slow-talking, thick-drawled southern country lawyers have done serious damage to presidents before.)

It’s been reported that Sessions is likely to leave the administration after the midterms, and Trump told Bloomberg last week that he was safe until then. But it’s hard to imagine how Sessions could withstand the latest humiliation and keep serving Trump for another few months.

In fact, how can any of these top officials manage to keep doing their jobs? And even if they are able to swallow hard and keep working, how can Trump keep them around? He’s shameless enough that his remarks about Sessions won’t embarrass him, but the disrespect from Kelly and Mattis likely will. Kelly and Sessions already have a foot out the door, but Mattis—while reportedly somewhat sidelined—has seemed bulletproof, with his careful handling of the president and widespread, bipartisan acclaim making him unfireable. Will that hold?

An interesting precursor is former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who in July 2017 reportedly called the president a “fucking moron.” In October 2017, NBC first reported the remark, followed by confirmation by other outlets. Tillerson gave brief remarks that day but refused to deny he’d made the comment. From then on, he was on perpetual death watch, with departures announced several times in the press. It seemed as though the only thing keeping Tillerson from being fired was Trump’s desire to spite the media by disproving their stories. Finally, in March, Tillerson received the call—while on the toilet, according to Kelly—that he’d been fired. In the meantime, the State Department was listless, unhappy, and increasingly ineffective.

The prolonged, unhappy saga echoes the Sessions-Trump drama. The two men can’t get along, but Trump has so far refused to fire Sessions, and he didn’t accept an attempted resignation. Who knows what might happen now with Mattis, but it’s hard to imagine a successor who would be as clever, effective, and able to restrain Trump as he’s apparently been. An impulsive president who is unschooled in diplomacy and foreign affairs could be even more dangerous without hobbles like Mattis in place.

The dysfunction at the heart of Woodward’s account demonstrates the paradox at the heart of the Trump White House: Everything is irreparably and disastrously broken, and yet what comes next could be even worse.