Where will the President's "meltdown" lead?

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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

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Could Trump actually fire Robert Mueller?

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Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump resembles a Geiger counter: When he emits increasing howls, he is signaling that we’re approaching some radioactive or explosive truth. I think he may soon attempt to dismiss Robert Mueller or otherwise impede the investigation, and my column today looks at how that would work and what’s at stake. Please read!

I think that Trump probably couldn’t fire Mueller directly but would have to go through the chain of command. There’s some buzz about the possibility of Trump firing the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, and replacing him on an acting basis with, say, Scott Pruitt, who presumably could be relied on to rein in Muller or end the investigation.

Also, a bonus pronouncer. If you want to sound smart at a cocktail party, Rosenstein is pronounced with the last syllable as “stine,” not “steen.” But I’ll let you pronounce it any damn way you want if you’ll just read the column!

Any moment now, we’ll be firing missiles at Syria. I generally welcome the idea of making a country pay a price for committing atrocities. But military strikes are effective only when harnessed to a strategy, and we simply don’t have a Syria strategy right now. In the absence of a broader vision, we’ll spend $100 million in missiles (each Tomahawk cruise missile costs about $1 million) to feel good, while risking deepening the conflict. That money alternatively could educate about 100,000 Syrian refugees for a year.

We should also be concerned about a conflict erupting between Israel and Iran, perhaps through proxies in Syria or Lebanon, after an Israeli strike that killed several Iranians in Syria. Another Israel-Lebanon war would be catastrophe for everyone.

It’s difficult to think of a worse domestic policy mistake in America than mass incarceration, increasing the number of prisoners seven-fold since the 1960s, breaking up families, and exacerbating race gaps in America. One particularly offensive element of that has been handing over incarceration to private prison companies, which now oversee 9 percent of America’s prisoners. They are more dangerous for guards and inmates alike, as this excellent article points out, but the Trump administration plans to expand their use.

The Trump administration is also talking about cutting foreign aid, so it’s worth taking a look at newly released figures for humanitarian aid by country. The U.S. gives 0.18 percent of GDP in aid to poor countries, which is about half of the average in industrialized countries. That’s 18 cents out every $100 to save lives and educate people and create a better world. Is there a better bargain?

Another bargain: My column on whether Trump will fire Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein, and what’s at stake!

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