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The president gave his top lawyer the order, but wouldn't execute the order on his own.
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20180126 WHW
Donald Trump very nearly had the special counsel investigating him fired, until the top White House lawyer told the president he would resign rather than give the order to the Justice Department. That’s the gist of the latest bombshell story from the New York Times, which reports President Trump told the White House counsel Don McGahn to have Robert Mueller, then just a few weeks on the job as the special counsel looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, dismissed.

According to the Times, the president listed three reasons for firing Mueller, which included the former FBI director’s resignation from Trump’s northern Virginia golf club several years earlier in a dispute over membership dues. Here’s more from the paper:

After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

Mr. McGahn disagreed with the president’s case and told senior White House officials that firing Mr. Mueller would have a catastrophic effect on Mr. Trump’s presidency. Mr. McGahn also told White House officials that Mr. Trump would not follow through on the dismissal on his own. The president then backed off.

Neither McGahn nor President Trump’s personal lawyer, Ty Cobb, deny the claims in the story.
One More Thing—Here’s an important detail in the Times story: “The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice.”

Mueller learning about this attempt to fire him is made all the more interesting by this: President Trump’s own lawyers released a document on Thursday morning detailing how cooperative the president has been with Mueller’s investigators. Among the bullet points was that more than 20 White House aides have been interviewed by the special counsel’s team—including eight on McGahn’s staff in the White House counsel’s office.
In the brand new issue of the magazine, I take a deeper look at what the Trump administration’s response to the Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria this week tells us about the state of things in that region. Here’s an excerpt:
2018 Watch—Is an announcement for Mitt Romney for Utah Senate in the offing? UtahPolicy.com, citing “sources close to Mitt Romney”, says the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee “will announce next week that he is running for the U.S. Senate this year.”
Davos Watch—President Trump had a warm bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump declared the United States would move their embassy to Jerusalem last December.

Netanyahu roundly praised the president for his pro-Israel stances, calling the embassy move “a historic decision that will be forever etched in the hearts of our people for generations to come.” The prime minister also thanked Trump for his strong response to Iranian aggression and his aggressively pro-Israel stance at the United Nations, which he called “a house of slander against Israel and the United States.”

“I’ve never seen the holistic alliance between the United States, Israel, and your other allies in the region as strong, as unified as it is under your leadership,” Netanyahu said. Read more...
Feature of the Day—“Death With Dignity” on the final days of anti-euthanasia activist J.J. Hanson, by Bill McMorris at the Washington Free Beacon.
 
Davos Watch II—Trump also sat down with British prime minister Theresa May on Thursday at the World Economic Forum. The two leaders attempted to dispel rumors that their relationship had grown chilly recently. Earlier this month, President Trump cancelled a scheduled trip to London.




“The prime minister and myself have had a really great relationship, although some people don’t necessarily believe that. But I can tell you it’s true,” Trump said. “And I think the feeling is mutual from the standpoint of liking each other a lot. And so that was a little bit of a false rumor out there.” Read more...
 
You won’t want to miss this year’s Weekly Standard Summit at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs. Get a chance to hear from our lineup of speakers, including your favorite TWS writers like Steve Hayes, Fred Barnes, Bill Kristol, and even your trusted White House Watch correspondent. The event is May 17-20, and it’s a great opportunity to hear our insights and analysis on the news of the day—including what’s going on in the Trump White House.

Learn more and sign up for the Summit here.
Song of the Day— “Fired” by Ben Folds