One thing we can say at this point with absolute certainty: Mark Meadows has no remote clue who Donald Trump is. That was made fairly clear by his 300-plus page love letter to Trump aka Meadows’ memoirs of working in the White House, but now Rolling Stone is lending details to Meadows’ delusionary state and the fact that he’s hiding from the man he once worshipped.
…some of Trump’s longtime allies and close advisers have taken to sardonically referring to Meadows by using the rat emoji in their private conversations, according to a source with knowledge of the situation and a screenshot reviewed by Rolling Stone.
However, others in Trump’s immediate orbit have recently sought to reassure him that, for now at least, he should not read too much into Meadows’ silence, two people with direct knowledge of the matter say. Despite all the rumors that have been flying, these individuals have told Trump that there is no hard evidence yet that Meadows is formally cooperating, and that he could simply be following lawyers’ advice to keep a low profile, answering the feds’ questions when he has to until the special counsel investigation runs its course.
Unfortunately for Meadows and other witnesses, Trump has for years often seen little difference between a witness having an official cooperation agreement with prosecutors, and someone who is legally required to answer questions and in doing so offers up potentially damning information to the authorities, according to sources who’ve spoken to Trump about federal probes and other investigations over the decades. Indeed, Trump was furious over the degree of detail in the notes made by his own attorney, Evan Corcoran, which have since become very useful for prosecutors in this case.
The current state of Meadows’ relationship to Trump and his inner orbit is a dramatic turn away from early on in Trump’s post-presidency. Following the wave of scandal and violence stemming from Trump’s attempt to cling to power after the 2020 election, Meadows mostly stayed in the former president’s good graces. At that stage, Meadows even privately said it was likely Trump would offer him a senior role headed into the next presidential contest — perhaps even as chairman of Trump’s 2024 campaign, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
You talk about two people, ostensibly working towards the same goal but being completely at odds with one another, and you can’t find a more ridiculous pair than Trump and Meadows. Meadows’ book was meant as a paean, a song of tribute to Trump and what it really did, in fact, was land both of them in public relations hot water and on more than one occasion. Blessedly, the book only sold 22,000 copies — and who knows how many of those were pre-bought by Donald Trump, Jr.?
Meadows was the one who was working with two assistants, while researching his memoir, who revealed Trump saying, “As president I could have declassified it,” but that, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.” That is a damning admission to make because it shows that Trump understands he broke the law. Yet, this is the genius mind who was going to spearhead the Trump 2024 campaign.
Actually, I wish he would. I wish that Meadows and Trump would have a Come To Jesus moment together and decide that they want to work together again and Meadows can become the new Jared Kushner, and spearhead the Trump 2024 campaign. The comedic possibilities are endless — particularly as details of Meadows’ testimony to Jack Smith are revealed.
Meadows is smarter than the average Trumper. He hired his own attorney and then got TFG’s PAC to pay his retainer. It makes sense that TFG would be soiling his depends on the chance that Meadows is cooperating.
“smarter than the average Trumper” is not exactly indicative of anything more than a 100 or less I.Q.
I did qualify it. Smarter than the average Trumper is not smarter than the average fifth grader.
I agree completely with the part about Trump not seeing much (hell, probably none at all) difference between someone cooperating and someone who shows up and only answers questions because they have to – as in answer or risk going to jail. I firmly believe that for Trump, what he thinks and says about anyone is: “Only weak people don’t fight hard enough to ever have to appear at all. If they are so weak the DO have to show up, only weak LOSERS answer questions. Well, their name maybe but after that EVERY answer to EVERY question had goddamned well better be pleading the fifth – or LYING to protect ME.”