After
Michael Cohen’s plea deal last week,
https://www.vanityfair.com/people/donald-trump#intcid=dt-hot-link spiraled out of control, firing wildly in all directions. He railed against “flippers” in a rambling
Fox & Friends interview, and
lashed out on Twitter at Attorney General
Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department, and
Robert Mueller. In the wake of his outbursts, White House officials have discussed whether Trump would listen to his closest New York City friends in an effort to rein him in. Two sources briefed on the matter told me that senior officials talked about inviting
Rudy Giuliani and a group of Trump’s New York real-estate friends including
Tom Barrack, Richard LeFrak, and
Howard Lorber to the White House to stage an “intervention” last week.
“It was supposed to be a war council,” one source explained. But Trump refused to take the meeting, sources said. “You know Trump—he hates being lectured to,” the source added. (Spokespeople for LeFrak and Lorber say they have no knowledge of a meeting. A spokesperson for Barrack didn’t comment.)
More than ever, Trump is acting by feeling and instinct. “Trump is nuts,” said one former West Wing official. “This time really feels different.” Deputy Chief of Staff
Bill Shine has privately expressed concern, a source said, telling a friend that Trump’s emotional state is “very tender.” Even
Jared Kushner and
https://www.vanityfair.com/people/ivanka-trump#intcid=dt-hot-link are unsettled that Trump is so gleefully acting on his most self-destructive impulses as his legal peril grows.
According to a source, Jared and Ivanka told Trump that stripping security clearances from former intelligence officials would backfire, but Trump ignored them. Kushner later told a friend Trump “got joy” out of taking away
John Brennan’s clearance. His reaction to the
death of John McCain—quashing a White House statement in praise of the senator, and restoring White House flags to full staff—falls into the same self-indulgent category.
...
After Cohen effectively named Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in campaign-finance crimes with the payments to
Stormy Daniels and
Playboy Playmate
Karen McDougal, Trump’s public posture was that the payments weren’t crimes. Privately, according to two sources, Trump attorneys suggested that a strategy for dealing with the issue could be for Trump to admit to having affairs with women and paying hush money to them for years. That way, he could assert that the payments to Daniels and McDougal were normal business—not campaign donations meant to influence the 2016 election. Trump, according to the sources, rejected this advice. “It was because of
Melania,” one source said.
Inside the West Wing, a sense of numbness and dread has set in among senior advisers as they gird for what Trump will do next. “It’s a return to the abyss,” said one former official who’s in frequent contact with the White House. “This is back to being a one-man show, and everyone is on the outside looking in.”