The veiled threats the President often volleys across to his opponents, or people who simply do not agree with him, have been so normalized that we often rationalize them as “his public persona”, or “that’s just twitter”, or “he’s go people writing that for him”, or anything that helps us better understand why a person with so much power could be so vindictive and petty.
Yet, as the report shows, the Trump on twitter is not his “public persona”, but Trump himself through the twitter megaphone.
Right after General Flynn began to cooperate with the government, the President got in contact with him to see if he could better understand the scope of the investigation:
… the President’s personal counsel left a message for Flynn’s attorneys reminding them of the President’s warm feelings towards Flynn, which he said “still remains” and asking for a “heads up” if Flynn knew “information that implicates the President”.
Mueller Report Volume 2, Page 6
Until this point, Trump played his now infamous tactic of using people like napkins. Just like with Cohen, who at one point was a “great attorney“, General Flynn was also a “good guy“. However, it all changes when the person is no longer useful to him. At that point, just like a napkin you use and then toss, people are tossed under the bus.
When Flynn’s counsel reiterated that Flynn could no longer share information pursuant to a joint defense agreement, the President’s personal counsel said he would make sure that the President knew that Flynn’s actions reflected “hostility” towards the President.
Mueller Report Volume 2, Page
What was the hostility exactly? The fact that under the law, which the President swore to defend, Flynn could no longer share certain information. The information in question was related to Flynn’s indictment, and sharing it could result in additional charges to Flynn.
We have rationalized and reasoned this President’s actions in as many ways as there are days in a year. We’ve done this always in an effort to try to make sense of the situation. Why… is our premise, and we always end up with a reasoned answer. But the reasoned answer is not the truth. The truth is, we are trying to make sense of the actions of an adult which more often remind us of the actions of a badly-played criminal on TV.
