Only a dictator

This is bad. Yesterday the nasty guy sent out a tweet that began, “I hereby demand...” The rest is somewhat irrelevant. Someone who values democracy does not begin communications with those words. Only a dictator does.

We’ll take a look at the rest anyway. The nasty guy wants to know whether the FBI or Department of Justice infiltrated his 2016 campaign.

Leah McElrath tweeted:

Trump appears to be setting up his own Attorney General (Sessions) and Deputy Attorney General (Rosenstein) to be forced to refuse a presidential order.

Which he might then use as justification for firing them.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville adds that some in the media still portray the nasty guy and his minions as “stupid” and incapable of long-term planning. But one doesn’t get to control the US government by accident. The nasty guy has a very clear long-term strategy, to be an authoritarian. Others may see it as “stupid” because if one is pursuing a goal of democracy – which the media expect – the things he does look stupid. But he’s after something entirely different.

McEwan concludes:

That was the plan. He didn't achieve it by accident.

Trump might not be sitting in the Oval Office without intervention from the Russians, but that is not an argument that he had no long-term plan on which he was executing. To the contrary, it's an argument that collusion became part of the plan.

As a result of the tweet mentioned at the top of the post, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI director Christopher Wray met with the nasty guy. Afterwards Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement:

Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's or the Department of Justice's tactics concerning the Trump campaign. It was also agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and DNI together with Congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.

McEwan translates:

The president is currently under investigation. He's essentially asking to see what they've got on him.

That is just a brazen abuse of power.

And, as usual, there's no one around with the power and willingness to stop him.