President Donald Trump’s advisers encourage him to make early morning consultation calls with his outside legal counsel to vent frustrations over the Russia investigation, according to the Washington Post.
The tactic is apparently an attempt to manage the president’s impulsive outbursts, diverting them from the very public platform of Twitter to a more private forum. Trump is an avid Twitter user and has long used social media as a means of communicating directly to his supporters, boast about his approval ratings, or burn off his anger.
The Fake News Media hates when I use what has turned out to be my very powerful Social Media – over 100 million people! I can go around them
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017
When it comes to the lingering accusations of collusion between members of his administration and Russia, as well as the ongoing investigations, Trump has made his feelings quite clear.
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017
Advisers, however, are worried that the president is failing to compartmentalize the Russia investigation, and instead remains consumed by it even when he is engaging in other work.
The calls are “part strategy consultation and part presidential venting session,” the Post reports, and despite them Trump still occasionally opts for the therapy of ranting online. One White House adviser actually laughed when a Post reporter asked if the strategy was effective.
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
At a time like this, with a communications reshuffle in the cards and as Trump’s team attempt to reconsolidate their public facing stance, it appears to be the president’s own uncontrollable tweeting habits that will be most difficult to reform.
H/T Washington Post