Trump will never become normal-He's a psychically damaged-impulsive-clownish man-He'll never change

.........

Cohen-Watnick is still in place. But he was put in his place on that front. And I suspect the on-going Susan Rice brouhaha is more the fluff and flotsam of partisans than anything we'll see later as a matter of any real consequence. I also suspect that we'll eventually see that Bannon's demotion, Cohen-Watnick's interaction with the Counsel's Office and even today's comments by the President as being part of one interconnected story.

That story looks in large part to be the growing power and authority of McMaster. But I think we can also widen our field of view to see a wider picture. Donald Trump will never become normal. He's a psychically damaged, impulsive, clownish man. He'll never change. The Russia scandal of which he is the epicenter continues to metastasize with a mix of counter-intelligence, law enforcement and congressional inquiries. That's not going away. At the same time, the people who were at the center of it are going away, or at least they are being reduced in their power and influence. Bannon and Flynn - whatever their role in the Russia scandal - are both people who embodied the melange of extremism and corruption which typified Trump and his campaign. Slowly but surely those people are being pushed from the center of power.

Growing in power are people like McMaster, McGahn, Mattis and others. There's no need to lionize these people. This is no attempt to do so. I'm simply noting that unless things are wildly different than we imagine, these men had no role in the Russia shenanigans or the hothouse crazy of PizzaGate and all the rest which is the world of Flynn and Bannon and all their crazies. These are each more conventional players, trying to build up their own power but also seemingly trying to regularize the conduct of the administration into more accustomed patterns.

Does this mean the Trump administration is getting tamed and going mainstream? I very much doubt it. Trump is still the boss, with all that entails. Bannon, Flynn and their cronies are all part of the extremism and corruption I described above. But the real corruption stems from Trump himself, as does the impulsiveness and The Crazy. They could fire everyone else tied to the Russia scandal tomorrow. But it still all happened. The investigations won't stop. Trump is still President. But we do seem to be seeing a group of normal people - I use this term advisedly and in a very broad sense - trying to create a functioning administration, at least on the foreign policy front around Trump, in spite of Trump.

Interesting developments.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/putting-the-pieces-together