Instead, Trump installed Sessions at the Justice Department with a mandate to oversee a hard-line anti-immigration agenda and start rolling back civil rights protections. In a statement, Trump hailed Sessions as “a world-class legal mind” who is “highly respected” and “greatly admired.” For Sessions, becoming attorney general was a personal triumph. His network of aides and advisers called him “Joseph,” referring to the Old Testament son of Jacob and Rachel who was shunned by his brothers and sold into slavery as a boy outcast. But Joseph eventually came under the good graces of an Egyptian pharaoh, rising to become his right hand and oversee the grain supplies of Egypt, ultimately helping civilization survive famine.
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At Mar-a-Lago the weekend of March 3, Trump was joined by his daughter Ivanka and Kushner, who are often described by their admirers as calming influences on the tempestuous president. Ensconced at the Palm Beach castle, the kids were helpless to contain the president. Trump had a tendency to try to distract from bad news stories by creating new stories, and starting at 6:35 a.m. on March 4 he pecked out four tweets accusing Obama of orchestrating a politically motivated plot to tap the phones at his Trump Tower campaign headquarters in the run-up to the election. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process,” Trump wrote. “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
Trump made this explosive allegation without citing any evidence, although a Breitbart article posted the day before about the Obama administration’s alleged “police state” tactics had been circulating among Trump’s senior staff. An Obama spokesman, Kevin Lewis, called Trump’s allegations “simply false.” But that didn’t seem to bother Trump, who went golfing later that morning and vented to friends. “This will be investigated. It will all come out. I will be proven right,” Christopher Ruddy said Trump told him. “This is bad; this is really bad. I hope the media focus on this.”
Just six weeks in office, Trump believed he was being tormented in ways known and unknown by a group of Obama-aligned critics, federal bureaucrats, intelligence figures, and, most especially, the news media. His angst over the “Deep State,” already well established, was fomenting daily and fueled by rumors and conspiracies.
Four
A FATEFUL FIRING
On March 21, 2017, Trump directed Don McGahn to find a way to get James Comey to tell the public the president himself was not under investigation. Trump was upset about the FBI director’s confirmation in congressional testimony the day before that the bureau was probing possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign, leading to speculation that the president was a suspect. Over the next five days, Trump made similar requests of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA director Mike Pompeo, and National Security Agency director Michael Rogers. On March 30, he personally called Comey to ask him to help “lift the cloud.” Yet none of these government officials, sworn to serve the public and protect the integrity of investigations, complied with Trump’s requests. They observed a professional code of honor Trump knew little about.
Increasingly vengeful, Trump considered delivering a prime-time televised address to the nation debunking what he dubbed the “Russian hoax.” When aides resisted, Trump shot back, “This is the only thing they’re talking about in politics. Why shouldn’t I grab the bully pulpit?” Eventually, Reince Priebus and others persuaded Trump not to give the speech, in part by arguing that a prime-time address would help define his legacy and it would be unwise to make it about the Russia investigation.
On May 3, Trump reached the boiling point when Comey declined in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee to say that the president was not under investigation. One by one, the officials he considered his servants had failed him. The president flew into a rage—“Like DEFCON 1,” one of his advisers recalled—that set in motion a quick progression of events culminating in the appointment of a special counsel that would threaten the president for two years to come.
Trump repeatedly insisted to aides, “I don’t know any Russians” and “I’ve never been to Russia.” Both statements were outright lies. Trump also groused about Comey. He’s a bad guy! He’s a showboater! He’s a grandstander! Rank-and-file FBI agents don’t respect him! The Democrats all hate him! Our base hates him! As they watched Comey’s testimony together, Steve Bannon told Trump that even if every single FBI agent hated the director, “The moment you fire him, he’s the greatest martyr. He’s Joan of Arc.”
Bannon argued that “the fucking deplorables don’t give a fuck” about the Russia investigation, referring to Trump’s base voters. “It’s the C block on Anderson Cooper. People are tired of talking about it,” he added. But, he explained to Trump, “you fire him and the FBI is going to bleed you out because they have to. They’re the FBI. You’re just a guy passing through here. They’re the FBI and they’re going to be here a hundred years from now.”
Trump was indignant. As he saw it, Coats, Pompeo, Rogers, and Comey were tools he could use to improve his situation, even if it meant lying or asserting something they did not know to be true. He issued an edict to four different officials he thought worked at his personal beck and call, yet none complied. “The president knew he didn’t collude with any Russians,” Trump’s longtime friend Thomas Barrack said. “It was infuriating to him to continue to have that whiff of scandal out there.” Trump’s orders to Comey and the others violated precedent and standard. But the fact that federal intelligence and law enforcement leaders were not working to protect him frightened and infuriated the president.
The next day, May 4, Trump unloaded on Jeff Sessions.
“This is terrible, Jeff,” Trump said in a meeting that included McGahn and the attorney general’s chief of staff, Jody Hunt. “It’s all because you recused. AG is supposed to be the most important appointment. Kennedy appointed his brother. Obama appointed Holder. I appointed you and you recused yourself. You left me on an island. I can’t do anything.” Sessions again explained that he had no choice but to recuse himself, considering the Justice Department’s ethics rules, but Trump was still furious.
On Friday, May 5, he flew to Bedminster, New Jersey, to spend the weekend at his private golf club. The rainy and windy weather did little to improve the president’s sour mood. He hung around, watched television, drank Diet Cokes, and stewed. He mused about how badly Comey had let him down. Over dinner that night, Trump told Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and some family members that he wanted to dismiss Comey. Kushner encouraged the firing and noted that congressional Democrats already viewed Comey with contempt because of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Trump had ideas for what to say in his firing letter. Miller took notes as Trump dictated specific language, including that the letter should begin by clearing the president: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me that I am not under investigation concerning what I have often stated is a fabricated story on a Trump-Russia relationship . . .” Over the weekend, Miller drafted a four-page termination letter, and Trump offered several rounds of edits, insisting that the letter establish that Comey had been “under review” and that the president and the American people had lost faith in his judgment.