RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “No collusion. Let’s party. After two years spent in a defensive crouch, the president’s aides have emerged from their emotional bunkers in celebration of what they say is a total vindication of President Trump. That view may be based on the best possible interpretation of the letter written by Attorney General William P. Barr summarizing the conclusions of the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. But any caveats in the letter or the possibility of surprises when more of the report is released has not put a damper on the celebratory dinners at downtown Washington restaurants, the number of teamwork-focused photos posted on social media or the hugs in the White House driveway between television interviews. Inside the White House, the reaction was more low key, but aides still wanted to make their happiness known: Ms. Sanders posted, and then deleted, a celebratory Instagram photo of a scowling Mr. Trump flanked by a team of lawyers and his social media director, Dan Scavino.”
–Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman, “For Trump’s Aides, Celebratory Dinners and a Hunger for Revenge,” The New York Times online, March 26, 2019