Chaos in the White House may have become an inevitable part of the daily US political diet, but the latest and looming developments seem to suggest a dramatic new – perhaps final – twist in the Donald Trump saga. Bettors following the various Trump Exit Date and 2020 Election markets should be on red alert, because things are moving fast.
McMaster is the latest senior official to leave
Senior administration staff continue to turnover at an unprecedented rate. National Security Advisor H R McMaster is the latest out the door, to be replaced by one of the most divisive figures in US politics. John Bolton is famous for ultra-hawkish stances on the war in Iraq and pre-emptive strikes on Iran and North Korea.
I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018
This follows on from last week’s sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Rumours persist that Chief of Staff John Kelly – regarded to be a rare stabilising force in the administration – will be gone soon. John Dowd, a lawyer working on the Russia investigation, resigned because Trump won’t take his advice. Evidently by his tweets, Trump wants to kill the Mueller investigation and seems to be sidelining any dissenting voices.
“Special Council is told to find crimes, whether a crime exists or not. I was opposed to the selection of Mueller to be Special Council. I am still opposed to it. I think President Trump was right when he said there never should have been a Special Council appointed because…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018
Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added…does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2018
Mueller tipped to make further cybercrime indictments
Further indictments are imminent and may well even arrive today at this scheduled press conference on cybercrime. Mueller has already established that there was a comprehensive Russian state-backed disinformation campaign, aimed to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump. Hacked e-mails were distributed via Wikileaks and weaponised. Guccifer 2.0 – the hacker who claims to have given them to the latter – is reportedly a Russian agent and in Mueller’s sights.