Rat Hunt at the White House

A Prussian Landwehrmann tanning rat skins in a dugout, WWI.

After publication of this New York Times oped, and Bob Woodward's new book, FEAR, the rat hunt is on at the White House.

The long knives are going to be out. Was it Pence? Mattis? Coats? Kelly? Could it be Jared? KellyAnne? Pompeo? Sessions? Kudlow? McGahn? Huntsman?

Heads are going to roll.

The killing is going to come at a time when the White House already has too little bandwidth to operate.

If you hollow out an organization, and only keep the sycophants, things collapse pretty quickly.

The mid-term elections are just eight weeks away.  The Republicans are sure to lose the House, and it's possible they could lose the Senate.

Whatever happens, Trump is dead man walking.

The Republicans in the Senate will finally be past whatever damage a Trump Tweet could do to their own re-election, and the smart ones will be looking to re-frame themselves and their party, with Trump firmly on the outside.

Look for a half dozen GOP Senators to suddenly get religion.  If that happens, impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate could become a very real possibility.

As for the Mueller probe, it has barely broken the surface.  We still have not heard all that Michael Cohen, George Nader, Allen Weisselberg, Paul Erickson, David Pecker, and Felix Sater have to offer. I fully expect Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Roger Stone, and David and Donna Keene to testify before Grand Juries, if not face indictments themselves. More folks are going to flip. Stormy Daniels is not yet finished, Omarosa has hundreds of more tapes, and Karen McDougal’s case is headed to court. And what about Alfa Bank moving a billion dollars or more to Trump through Deutsche Bank?  What about the FCPA violations?  Flynn has yet to be sentenced, Manafort still has another trial to go, and the Attorney General of New York is going to bring charges against the Trump Foundation.

What sparked the New York Times op-ed?  It comes the same week that Bob Woodward's book, FEAR is about to hit the shelves, and it seem obvious that this was the trigger. 

Someone is trying to get out from under, and ahead of the spear that they see coming.  Much the same happened just before Hitler killed himself and the tanks rolled across the Rhine.  If Trump actually knew any history, he might be worried.