Trump's Presidency Falls Apart And We're Still Arguing Over Whether He's An Autocrat
The New York Times reports that President Trump is angry at Attorney General Jeff Sessions because his Justice Department substituted a weakened travel ban for the original ban; Trump is also peeved because Sessions recused himself in the Russiagate investigation, which in Trump's view was the reason a special counsel was named.
Regarding the travel ban, Ezra Klein wonders whether Trump realizes that he himself is actually the president of the United States:
... “the Justice Dept.” is really Trump’s Justice Department. It is run by a man Trump handpicked to lead it. The revised travel ban — which was an effort to save Trump’s policy from total defeat before the Supreme Court — was crafted with the input of the White House, and only released after Trump’s top advisers cleared it.
... If Trump didn’t want the revised travel ban released, why was it released? Isn’t he the boss? Is he going to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions? Or ask Sessions to fire someone else? And what kind of leader acts like this, litigating frustrations in public and dodging responsibility for the actions of the organization he runs?