Last week, The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump and his top immigration advisor Stephen Miller twice floated dumping migrants into sanctuary cities as a way to retaliate against Democrats.
Trump called the story "fake" on Saturday and then reversed course, claiming he has the "absolute right" to do whatever he wants (he does not).
Over the weekend we learned that Trump's proposal to has morphed into a ploy to distract from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, which the Justice Department expects to release to the public on Thursday.
Trump, who has said he does not "care about the Mueller report" and that it is a "total and complete exoneration" (it is not), is reportedly feeling "emboldened" ahead of Attorney General William Barr's anticipated redacted version of Mueller's work.
Maggie Haberman of The New York Times reported on Sunday:
"Barr’s letter effectively emboldened Mr. Trump, aides said, even as they prepare for new details to emerge from a redacted version of the report — expected this week — that could renew questions about the president’s fitness for office, and even as some of them cringe at Mr. Trump’s choice of the word 'exonerate.' (Privately, they admit, they would prefer he use the word 'vindicate.')"
"Trump is purposefully escalating his language, people who know him said, expressly to enliven his base of supporters and to enrage his political rivals and the news media. He has revived an idea that his administration rejected — sending immigrant detainees to so-called sanctuary cities — in part, people close to him said, to distract from the report."'
On Monday, Trump proclaimed on Twitter that "illegal immigrants... will be, subject to Homeland Security, given to sanctuary cities and states." DHS has been without leadership since Kirstjen Nielsen resigned as secretary last week.
The distraction machine is operating at full capacity.
Why could that be? Trump's tweets Monday morning speak volumes.
He has again assailed Mueller's investigation and Congressional Democrats five times and it is still not even noon.
Trump is in panic mode.
Ask yourself: this how an exonerated person acts?
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