In case America didn't get enough of Trump being Trump last year, 2018 promises to be a dooze. On a day that counts at least three major departures from the Trump administration (Rex Tillerson, Tillerson's spokesperson, and Trump's personal aide) comes word that Trump views this moment as a reckoning in which he’s taking back his power.
Vanity Fair reported last Friday that Trump was going for "a clean reset" as he preps for the run up to the midterms. That assessment seems about right, though at the time, the outlet fingered chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster as next on the chopping block. Of course, it's entirely likely that the reporting did actually reflect Trump's thinking several days ago, but then Trump suddenly pulled the trigger on Tillerson after his secretary of state crossed the “red line" of expressing his support for Great Britain over Russia.
However, clearing out Tillerson also smoothed the way for Trump to install John Bolton as a replacement for H.R. McMaster, who's still expected to be axed.
The litany of changes at the CIA, State Department, and National Security Council all come at an ideal time—as Trump preps for historic and potentially disastrous talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In the meantime, Vladimir Putin is thumbing his nose at the world—warning the UK that “one should not threaten a nuclear power” and practically claiming responsibility for ousting Tillerson.
This is exactly the type of status quo congressional Republicans had been hoping for leading into the midterms. Upending free trade and however that might ripple through the economy is really the least of their worries. Now we've got Trump "unplugged," looking to leave his imprint on the global stage with the threat of thermonuclear warfare in the mix. What could go wrong?