4/18/2019

FBI/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WHITE HOSUE STAFF: “When ousted FBI Director James Comey delivered damaging testimony to Congress in 2017, attracting nationwide attention, White House aides insisted that President Donald Trump’s mood was ‘light.’ Shortly after news broke that Donald Trump Jr. agreed to meet with Russian nationals promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trump reported that the vibe in the White House was ‘fantastic.’ And after Republicans lost the House in last year’s midterm elections, Trump’s advisers countered that the president was feeling ‘buoyant.’ In a subsequent cable news interview, Trump added that he was ‘extremely upbeat.’ For more than two years, the president and his team have been dutifully forking over questionable anecdotes about the president’s persistent good spirits in the face of a constant stream of stories about the dismal morale in the West Wing and Trump’s propensity for lashing out. On Thursday [4-18-19], special counsel Robert Mueller backed up the plentiful anonymous accounts of turmoil in the White House — only he got it all on the record. Across 488 pages, Mueller’s team recounted scores of interviews in which Trump’s advisers described a president obsessed over the investigations encircling him, often expressing frustration — and even despair — when things weren’t going his way.”

Andrew Restuccia, “Mueller report shatters Trump aides’ claims of harmonious White House,” Politico, April 18, 2019 6:07 pm