Trump thinks that by making a move on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he will be able to save his Supreme Court nominee by getting him out of the news.

Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair reported:

According to a source briefed on Trump’s thinking, Trump decided that firing Rosenstein would knock Kavanaugh out of the news, potentially saving his nomination and Republicans’ chances for keeping the Senate. “The strategy was to try and do something really big,” the source said. The leak about Rosenstein’s resignation could have been the result, and it certainly had the desired effect of driving Kavanaugh out of the news for a few hours.

Trump Thinks That The News Can Only Do One Story At A Time

Trump has fallen into the same self-created trap numerous times during his presidency. Trump thinks that journalists can only cover one story at a time. The president seems to believe that the free press functions in the same single-minded way that he does. Trump consistently fails to understand that press is capable of covering both stories, and when the White House backed off of firing Rosenstein on Monday, they put all of the attention back on Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump Is A Terrible Strategist

Trump was going to try to provoke national chaos in an effort to get his Supreme Court nominee off of the news, and it worked, for a couple of hours until the conflicting reports surfaced, and it became clear that Rosenstein wasn’t going anywhere today. The idea of firing Rosenstein to get Kavanaugh out of the news is the same type of seat of the pants live for today impulsiveness that has made Trump‘s presidency a failure.

The inability to plan means that the Trump presidency veers from one self-created crisis to another while going in circles and accomplishing nothing.

Republicans Are Going To Fire Up Democrats Either Way

Trump’s two options are both bad for the Republican Party. If Trump fires Rod Rosenstein, it is going to push the Democratic desire to capture the Senate to even greater heights. If Republicans confirm Kavanaugh, it is going to set off a wave of women heading to the polls in November.

The best thing for Republicans to do would be to dump Kavanaugh and use the possibility of an open Supreme Court seat to motivate their own voters to get out and help them keep control of the Senate, but since Republicans are terrified that the Trump presidency is on borrowed time, they won’t even consider taking this risk and instead are trying to ram the Kavanaugh nomination through the Senate.

Trump distraction technique isn’t working, as Brett Kavanaugh‘s nomination remains at the top of the news and teetering on the brink of failure.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association