“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to a document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia.” These are strange words for a US president to say to a Russian Foreign Minister and a Russian ambassador to the US the day after firing the head of the FBI.
The US administration is in a crisis that may end Trump’s presidency, and gambling clubs are taking bets on how his presidency will end. Trump’s administration is consumed by scandal, lacks man-power, and is rocked by mass dismissals and resignations, and his rash and changeable character adds chaos and confusion. With Trump as president, so many senior positions in his administration are vacant that the White House cannot function efficiently, and he is losing people rapidly. The latest high profile figure to go was FBI Director James Comey. Trump fired him suddenly on the 9th of May, and according to Senator Richard Durbin, that was just days after Comey requested more money and staff to widen an FBI investigation into the scandal of Russian interference to help Trump win the presidential election.
The FBI investigation is one of three US investigations into Trump’s links with Russia. The other two are being led by the House of Representatives and the Senate, which are dominated by the Republican Party majority. The support of the Republican Party in congress cannot be guaranteed for Trump, as amongst other things congressional elections are coming next year, and Trump’s popularity is dropping every day making him a liability and a threat to their majority. On the 18th of May, Representative Jason Chaffetz announced that he will resign from Congress next month, but many are questioning the timing of his announcement. He declared that he will leave Congress the day after ‘tweeting’ that he had invited ex-FBI Director James Comey to testify next week at a hearing of the oversight committee he chairs to investigate Trump’s firing of the FBI director and his presidential campaign’s ties with Russia. Chaffetz had vowed to get memos that ex-FBI Director James Comey reportedly wrote about his meeting with Trump in which, according to Comey’s supporters, the president put pressure on Comey to shut down the FBI investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump had been forced to fire Flynn on the 13th February because of bad publicity about his links with the Russians during the elections and in the presidential transition period, about which Flynn had lied.
The Justice Department also experienced politically motivated interference. First, Trump fired Sally Yates from her post as acting attorney general on the 30th of January after she refused to support Trump’s ban on immigration from seven Muslim countries. She was accused by the White House of having: “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” However, she revealed earlier this month at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting that she had repeatedly warned the White House just days before Trump fired her that the National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was deceiving the White House. Next, US Attorney Preet Bharara was forced to resign on the 11th of March, which according to Representative Elija Cummings was only three days after a group of ethics oversight organizations wrote a letter asking Bharara to investigate whether the Trump family’s businesses are receiving financial benefits from foreign governments.
Trump lacks wide support amongst the capitalists that fund the Republican Party, and he feels isolated. Republicans only supported him as their presidential candidate at a late stage when they believed that he could win the popular vote, but apart from the billionaire Robert Mercer, the other key funders, such as the Koch brothers, are simply using Trump’s political weakness to force through the tax reforms they desire as quickly as possible before the Mid-term elections next year. As these elections draw closer, Trump’s difficulties will increase and his Party will have to make difficult decisions otherwise they will lose their majority in Congress. However, according to Tony Schwartz, who is the real author of Trump’s book: The Art of the Deal, Trump’s personality is such that he will resign before he is removed from office and he will claim this as his personal victory.
Dr. Abdullah Robin
Written for Ar-Rayah Newspaper – Issue 131