* This might be the day that the long knives came out in the internecine battles among Trump and his associates. It wasn’t that long ago that Sec. of State Tillerson called Trump a “f*cking moron.” Here’s what a couple of other Trump associates had to say about him, according to Michael Wolff:
Murdoch after talking to Trump, per Wolff book: “What a fucking idiot” https://t.co/ND2qF1Otgf pic.twitter.com/AbJJVMdgZh
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 3, 2018
Wolff writes that Thomas Barrack Jr, a billionaire who is one of the president’s oldest associates, allegedly told a friend: “He’s not only crazy, he’s stupid.”
— Jeff Stein (@SpyTalker) January 3, 2018
* Wolff also revealed a few things Trump is alleged to have said. Apparently he used the “c” word to describe former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Here’s another gem that might be of interest to all of those white evangelicals who continue to support the president:
page 23 of new Wolff book: “Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends’ wives into bed.”
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 3, 2018
* On Bannon’s home turf at Breitbart News, they covered the blow-up between he and Trump with an article titled, “Donald Trump Furious: Steve Bannon ‘Not Only Lost His Job, He Lost His Mind.” I’ll simply note that as of this writing, that post has well over 20,000 comments. Surf at your own risk.
Ex-Trump campaign manager Paul J. Manafort on Wednesday challenged his indictment by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in a federal lawsuit, saying the Justice Department’s prosecution of him over his business dealings have nothing to do with Mueller’s investigation on Russian interference in last year’s presidential campaign.
Manafort’s attorneys argue in a 17-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington that the department exceeded its legal authority when Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein in May ordered Mueller to investigate “links and/or coordination” between the Russian government and Trump campaign, as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from” that investigation.
* This is one of the biggest reasons that Trump’s executive orders aren’t having as much impact as the White House would have you believe:
Democratic attorneys general in a handful of states are mounting a fierce battle against President Trump’s government, filing almost 50 lawsuits that have bogged down some of the administration’s key initiatives.
The wave of lawsuits, Democrats say, is the product of an unprecedented effort to coordinate legal actions across state lines, both to defend Obama-era rules and to block what they see as Trump’s overreach.
* Trump isn’t the only one in his administration that wants to use federal law enforcement to punish his opponents.
The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday advocated for the arrest of local and state government officials who don’t cooperate with federal immigration agents.
“This is a victimization of the American community,” Thomas Homan told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “This isn’t the America I grew up in. We’ve got to take these sanctuary cities on. We’ve got to take them to court, and we’ve got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes.”
* Given all that has transpired today, here’s the song that comes to mind:
