On Wednesday, Donald Trump, as he is wont to do, fired his Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin via tweet:
On Thursday, Shulkin took to the cable airwaves, appearing on MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes and explained exactly how that all went down.
Turns out Shulkin had received a call prior to his firing, and Trump didn't mention a thing about terminating Shulkin.
"We spoke about the progress that I was making, what I needed to do from a policy perspective to make sure we are fixing the issues in VA."
Hayes was incredulous:
"You spoke to him, he made no mention of the fact that he was about to terminate you...Then you found out via tweet...."
Shulkin clarified the timeline:
"Right before that the Chief of Staff Kelly gave me a call, which I appreciated, he gave me a heads up, but that was much after the phone call."
If this sounds familiar, this is much the same way Rex Tillerson's termination happened, with a warning call from Kelly then a curt tweet that officially sent him packing.
The irony was not lost on Hayes that it appears that the man who made a name for himself with the catchphrase "You're fired" is actually unable to fire anyone in real life to their face.
Chris Hayes's fans weighed in on Twitter as well:
Interesting dilemma in the age of Trump:
Pretty much:
Rachel Maddow weighed in as well: