This Is What an Unleashed Trump Looks Like

[Roland99]

The president is bestowing favor on his loyal defenders, and visiting revenge on those he feels have betrayed him.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/what-unleashed-trump-looks-like/606421/

The Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump elicited predictions that the president would now be “unleashed,” freed to do as he pleased. His actions over the past few days offer a first glimpse of what that might look like. With the threat of accountability gone, or at least diminished, Trump is bestowing favor on his loyal defenders, and visiting revenge on those he feels have betrayed him.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who testified in the impeachment hearings, was sacked from his post on the National Security Council, in what presidential aides made very clear was revenge. For good measure, so was his twin brother, a lawyer at the NSC and a fellow Army officer. Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, was asked to resign, and when he refused, he was fired Friday night. Elaine McCusker, who had been tapped to be Pentagon comptroller but clashed with the White House over freezing military aid to Ukraine, will have her nomination withdrawn, according to the New York Post.

And today, a day after prosecutors requested seven to nine years in prison for Roger Stone, the Justice Department suddenly intervened and announced that it would withdraw the recommendation in favor of a lighter sentence, a highly irregular move. Stone was convicted in November on seven counts, including witness tampering and making false statements, in a case that grew out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. Trump also tweeted angrily about the proposed sentence. “This is a horrible and very unfair situation,” he wrote. “The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!” Later, at the White House, Trump asserted an “absolute right” to intervene.

The intervention led to a mass resignation from the case in protest by prosecutors. First Aaron Zelinsky, a former Mueller aide, resigned from the case. (Zelinsky remains an assistant U.S. attorney, a career position, in Maryland.) Two others, Adam Jed and Mike Marando, also dropped off the case. A fourth, Jonathan Kravis, resigned from DOJ altogether in protest.

[napi21]

1. The prosecutors issue RECOMMENDATIONS! It's the

judge who pronounces sentence, and they are not bound to stick to those recommendations. They can go higher or lower. We'll see if this judge I still as independent as she has been, or of she is tainted by the political influence of DT!

[DEbluedude]

2. I think what we're seeing is the beginning of the culmination

Of what 40 years of republican demagoguery, lying, cheating and stealing has produced. It’s going according to plan.

[WyattKansas]

3. I really hope the Democratic Party is prepared for checks and balances failing.

If the Democratic Party is still relying on the checks and balances along with elections getting rid of the rot, then we are in trouble. Obviously, they have all failed to date and there are no remedies if Russia hacks the election again, so the Democratic Party had better be ready next time to get very nasty and mean to use out of the ordinary maneuvers to get rid of the Rot in a hurry.

What do you win by winning all the arguments while losing the elections, when dirty nasty tricks are beating you? Stop playing the battered housewife and beat the republican thugs over the heads with the frying pan after you throw the boiling water in their faces. They are not your friends and they just proved it beyond any doubt.

By the way, tRUMP wants his dictatorship NOW and his every move is seize it as soon as possible, so do not take Pence's alleged misstatement about Nancy Pelosi being the last Speaker lightly.

[Skittles]

4. exactly the kind of person who should NOT BE PRESIDENT

imagine if a woman or POC behaved like that

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Well, he's not parading around naked, showing teens his 🍄 dick, so he's not completely unleashed.