Donald Trump is no stranger to a Twitter tirade, but as his beleaguered presidency stumbles on they’re becoming more and more a tantalising insight into his clearly troubled state of mind.
His latest, seven tweets in less than an hour, was longer than most and breathtaking in its scope.
Here’s what we can learn from them...
1) Ukraine and the A.G.
The reference to allegations the Clinton campaign collaborated with officials at the Ukrainian Embassy to research Trump’s associates has been used repeatedly by the Trump camp but is a classic case of deflection.
A Democratic National Committee (DNC) contractor did float the idea of obtaining damaging information from embassy officials but that is as far as it went.
Compare this with the current Russia probe which is investigating whether or not a coordinated effort by the USA’s main superpower rival, directed by Putin himself, tried to undermine US elections, allegations backed up by US intelligence agencies.
The comparison is a non-starter and that’s why there is no other investigation.
And as for ‘A.G.’...
2) Jeff Sessions
Again the “Clinton crimes” and “Intel leakers” is nothing more than deflection from the Russia probe.
The real story here is Jeff Sessions the - in Trump’s own words - “beleaguered” Attorney General.
Trump is angry at Sessions for recusing himself as head of the Russia probe after it emerged he had met with a Russian official in September, 2016.
Earlier this month the President assailed Sessions in a New York Times interview for taking himself out of the investigation, saying that if he’d known Sessions would choose that course he wouldn’t have installed him at the Justice Department.
Why? Well, Sessions was the first US Senator to publicly endorse Trump and as we know, unquestioning loyalty is highly-prized by Trump.
But the recusal meant that instead of loyal Sessions heading the Russia probe, Robert Mueller was instead appointed as Special Counsel and head of the investigation, a position completely independent of the Department of Justice and, in theory at least, less vulnerable to interference from the White House.
No wonder his team have been digging for dirt on Mueller and discussed firing Sessions.
Also, it’s worth just taking a step back at this point to remind ourselves the President of the USA is attacking his AG whom he appointed himself just months ago.
And doing it on Twitter.
3) The FBI and Andrew McCabe
Indeed, just another day.
Andrew McCabe is the acting head of the FBI and has been ever since Trump fired James Comey, most likely because he refused to pledge his “loyalty” to the President.
McCabe has been heavily criticised for not recusing himself into the Clinton email probe after it was revealed his wife received $675,000 from senior members of the DNC - but not Hillary Clinton.
All this is by-the-by though as, yet again, it is simply more deflection from the Russia probe.
As an aside, for some background of Trump’s limited understanding of how the administration he heads actually works, here’s an excerpt from an interview last week.
Astounding.
4) Major Legislation
Trump is rather fond of touting his own successes - just last night he described the work of the White House under his tenure as “incredible”.
Only there’s one problem - he’s yet to pass a single piece of major legislation.
5) Hypocrisy
It’s difficult to believe the sincerity of someone who once said of McCain’s Vietnam service: “I like people who weren’t captured.”
6) Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner didn’t prove anything yesterday.
What he did do was describe a number of meetings with Russian officials that he omitted from his White House security clearance form as due to an “aide’s error”.
Hmmm. He sure does tweet a lot about something that’s nothing more than a “witch hunt”...
In Conclusion...
Trump is little over six months into his presidency and his closest advisors (and relatives) are under investigation for possible collusion with a foreign government, he’s yet to pass any major legislation and he’s already discussing firing people he was praising and appointing just months ago.
Not to mention the other fiascos each one of which would have been enough to have been the main story of his predecessor’s tenures.
Rather than face up to any of this he continues to deflect attention onto Clinton’s alleged “crimes” and seems to think his victory in the Electoral College (don’t mention the popular vote though) is still enough to carry him through to the point he even thinks it’s appropriate to bring up while addressing a crowd of seven-year-olds.
And he does it all in public, on Twitter.