Day 131: Donald Trump is more obsessed about the Russia probe than you are

Over the weekend, Politico detailed how Donald Trump is totally consumed by the constant stream of Russia news. The report noted that Trump has been “aggressively working the phones since returning . . . from his foreign trip, talking to friends and outside lawyers as he obsesses over the deepening investigations into his aides and Russia.”

The report went on to state:

On his “big foreign trip,” as he called it, Trump repeatedly talked about Russia and the ongoing investigation, according to an ally close to the White House. Shortly after he returned, he seemed agitated about negative press about him.

Trump’s inner circle claims to see themselves as the victims of a conspiracy drudged up by the media and rogue intelligence community members and amplified by the left.

But the news won’t stop just because the White House is paranoid.

For instance, this morning, CNN reported that intercepted communications between Russian officials indicated that they believed they might have had leverage on the Trump team.

One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump’s inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed “they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information.”

This week, Trump is setting up a “war room” to try and combat reports of Russia collusion. The problem, of course, is that there’s a special prosecutor investigating the Trump-Russia connection that isn’t going to be swayed by public relations antics. Additionally, the full-time White House communications team has already failed to corral this story for months. The horse is out of the barn as every week turns up multiple new connections between the Trump team and Russia. Finally, there seem to be few people left in the White House that have credibility with the media, meaning much of the war room work will be done in collaboration with right-wing programming.

No one is exactly sure of the war room’s actual plan to confront the crisis, other than perhaps watching Trump tweet and subtweet about it.

Perhaps the most important task for Trump’s consiglieres will be keeping their story straight, as recently the Trump team has been caught changing their reasons for everything from the firing of former FBI Director James Comey (ineffectual to showboating to wasting time with Russia probe) to Jared Kushner’s back-channel conversations with Russia (establishing an open line of communication to a one-off chat about Syria).

No matter the spin, the Russia story is one that will remain central for the foreseeable future. No one will be watching more than Trump.

131 days in, 1331 to go

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