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When Rod J. Rosenstein arrives at the Oval Office on Thursday to be fired, resign or continue to hold office, the Deputy Attorney General will also consolidate his player status in one of President Trump's favorite board games: White House Survivor.
Although the results often differ – pulled by a tweet (former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson), they allowed to quit amicably (former National Security Advisor HR McMaster) or skinned but never quite (Attorney General Jeff Sessions) Those who sail out of Trump's orbit are a prolonged and capricious public humiliation.
Trump's penchant for letting his subordinates lay in Washington's capricious swamps often seems to be a form of psychological cruelty – and also the way he prefers to do business, according to the president's advisers and associates.
The former reality TV presenter who made himself known by saying "You're fired!" Has an aversion to conflict in person, said friends and advisers. Trump thinks that by tracing what will eventually be a layoff, he will be able to better measure the dominant views in his circle, as well as public opinion, they said.
"I think he likes to hit a wounded mouse in front of him because he asserts his sense of control and authority, and he likes that," said Tim O-Brien, author of "TrumpNation," a biography. "It's a classic form of bullying, where you're sort of hard outside and where you like to make people unhappy, but when things go wrong, you can not do what it takes to be brave face to face.
The saga of Rosenstein followed a familiar pattern. As head of the Justice Department investigating Special Adviser Robert S. Mueller III in Russia, Rosenstein has been a frequent target of Trump's anger, although the authorities have stated that relations between both men had been relatively good recently.
In this photo of July 9, 2004, Donald Trump, seeking candidates for the television show "The Apprentice," is interviewed at Universal Studios Hollywood. (Ric Francis / AP)
But regardless of Trump's and Rosenstein's detente, the New York Times said Rosenstein had suggested registering the president and garnering cabinet support to remove him from office through the 25th amendment.
Rosenstein denied the report, but nonetheless, many in Trump's orbit prepared for a presidential eruption that, unusually, never took place.
On Monday, the Rosenstein status conjecture resumed after Axios announced that the deputy attorney general had verbally "resigned" from White House chief of staff John F. Kelly in anticipation of his dismissal. Later reports indicated that he had simply offered to resign. After two hours of feverish speculation and conflicting reports, the White House announced that Rosenstein was staying at work – at least until he and the president could meet in person on Thursday.
The meeting, at the very least, is likely to be unpredictable. The White House deputies say they think Rosenstein's only way out of the job is to resign, while Justice officials say he should be fired – a potentially problematic move by Mueller and his investigators. hinders justice.
The president's relatives predict that the meeting could be very uncomfortable for Rosenstein, especially if Trump presses him for the veracity of reports about his alleged disloyalty. As a Trump outside advisor said, Rosenstein would be wise to arrive "wearing Depends".
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, listens to President Trump's speech at a White House Cabinet meeting on December 20, 2017. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)
But for the moment, Rosenstein is just waiting for his fate.
During his 20-month tenure as President, Mr. Trump raised the turnover of his usual staff, even though it was important, in a sport, prompting the media to turn every filmstrip into a headline.
For some senior officials, such as Tillerson and Trump's first chief of staff, Reince Priebus – both of whom finally fired on Twitter – the president first put them on public purgatory for several months. He asked friends and advisers questions about whether he should fire men – private doubts that quickly surfaced in embarrassing reports – and openly criticized them at internal meetings.
Sean Spicer, the White House's first press secretary, resigned before Trump took action against him, but he also faced months of humiliation with the president himself. against and make fun of him in the next.
According to a former White House official, the result was "to completely sterilize the person".
Chris Whipple, author of "The Gatekeepers," a history of White House chiefs of staff, said Trump's management style is detrimental to the good functioning of the federal government.
"It's a recipe for paralysis," said Whipple. "It's the most dysfunctional White House in modern history, and it's all the more true when senior officials do not know day-to-day when they'll be here the next morning."
The president's behavior also accentuated the existing fractionation in his west wing. After Trump showed signs of attack, many staff members took the opportunity to either further marginalize or to mobilize against a collaborator they did not like.
This happened with Tillerson, who had few natural allies, even in his own state department. Increasingly, the National Security Council deprived him of his deliberations, some foreign leaders stopped interacting with him and the Foggy Bottom bureaucracy turned against him.
On the other hand, Trump's play of willfulness or letting go has sometimes given rise to increased support for persecuted personnel. This happened with McMaster, who, despite his sometimes toxic relationship with Trump, was highly respected by many colleagues who helped extend his term at the White House. Yet his ouster last March was still considered inevitable.
Trump's method dates back to his beginnings as a leader. According to Barbara Res, a former vice president of Trump Organization, Trump Organization, her family-owned real estate company, has tormented senior executives, both to inspire loyalty and to exploit people's vulnerabilities and divert them. has become a critic of his former boss.
But, she added, he rarely dismissed employees.
"He loved to torture people, the way he tortures sessions -" You're stupid! "" You are not good! "You are that, you are that! "Attorney General's taunts." But no one feared they would be fired because he fired no one. "
Other presidents have had difficulty dismissing staff. "Historically, the presidents are terrible about the dismissal," Whipple said.
Whipple reminded President George H. W. Bush's reluctance to personally fire John H. Sununu despite his difficulties as White House Chief of Staff, ultimately outsourcing the dirty job. President Bill Clinton, too, was a reluctant hangman, keeping his associates well beyond what many others thought was the expected date.
As host of NBC's "The Apprentice," Trump has perfected the tactics of teasing and trumpeting to create suspense – and climb the odds of the show. Similarly, in the White House, Trump likes to broadcast personal dramas to measure public opinion.
At the beginning of his administration, as cabinet secretary after the cabinet secretary was caught in ethical scandals, the president was sometimes reluctant to let them go, unsure of what his base might think. This was particularly true in the case of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who survived for months in a series of controversies until his final resignation under pressure in July.
Trump also said that he thought keeping his assistants constantly in uncertainty as to their status encourages a ruthless environment that ultimately inspires loyalty. But in Rosenstein's case, it may have inspired something closer to fear.
O'Brien, who is also the editor of Bloomberg's opinion, said he was struck by reports that Rosenstein was hoping to leave the administration out of court.
"The fact that Rod J. Rosenstein is worried about not being able to go on good terms with Trump, after Trump has only belittled him and the entire Mueller investigation for months, shows that people in the orbit Trump suffer from Stockholm syndrome, "said O. Brien, referring to the phenomenon in which captives come to form an alliance with their captors. "It was telling that Rosenstein cared about me, and I thought," Oh, my God, Trump's just going to devour this guy. "
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