Yet again, President Trump’s unhinged tweets have gotten him in trouble, this time bordering on the illegal.
In a tweetstorm issued early Friday morning, Trump hit back at fired FBI Director James Comey for leaking to the press, threatening his new political enemy that he may have taped their conversations and would use those recordings against him if need be.
Trump suspected – as many others have – that a story published by the New York Times was anonymously sourced by Comey. The story claims that Trump sat down during a private dinner with Comey during which he asked the FBI Director who is currently investigating his Russia ties to sign a loyalty pledge. Comey politely declined.
As a result, Trump issued a dire threat:
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
This sort of ominous threat should be concerning to all people, not just Comey.
Trump’s threat is a major red flag to anyone else who works for or against the President – if your Commander in Chief is secretly recording you, would you be willing to share confidential information with him, or might you be more inclined to work around the POTUS?
As we dive deeper into the Russia investigation and Trump’s conduct around the hearings, it’s hard not to see the clear Nixonian correlations.
As historians have already noted, secret tapings are what directly led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Now that we have reasonable evidence that Trump is secretly recording his colleagues, a special prosecutor could demand the release of such recordings, giving any investigation body deep insight into Trump’s conduct.
Going forward, it appears clear that President Trump may not even need a special prosecutor to bring him down – his own loud mouth may do it alone.
