In a Facebook post published on Monday, Robert Reich, former labor secretary under Bill Clinton, reported a conversation with one of his friends, "a former Republican member of Congress." If this GOPer is as in-the-know as he claims to be, President Donald Trump could be in quite a bit of trouble.
According to Reich, his friend is hearing from his former colleagues who still serve that "Trump is out of his gourd." He also claims that "stuff with [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions is pissing them off," presumably a reference to how Trump has undercut his own attorney general over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. The colleague also pointed to Trump's hiring of "horse's ass" Scaramucci as communications director, a matter that may have been remedied by Trump's subsequent firing of the same "horse's ass."
The Republican also said that his co-partisans are worried that Trump will hurt their reelection chances in 2018 and 2020 and "want him outa there," although he doubts they'll impeach him without special counsel Robert Mueller coming up with a "smoking gun" (he also doubts that Trump will fire Mueller).
So what does he think the plan is?
"Put someone else up in ’20," Reich's friend said. "Lots of maneuvering already. Pence, obviously. Cruz thinks he has a shot."
Reich's friend also claims that Republicans believe Trump has become mentally unstable. He attributed Trump's firing of former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and undermining of both Sessions and Tillerson to an alleged belief that they are plotting to cite the 25th Amendment, which allows a president's cabinet to remove him from power if he's mentally incompetent, in order to remove Trump from power.
Reich said his friend dismissed any notion of disloyalty by Sessions and Tillerson as "ludicrous" but insisted that "Trump is fritzing out. Having manic delusions. He’s actually going nuts." As a result, "my betting is he’s out of office before the midterms. And Pence is president."
It is important to note that some of these predictions seem a tad disconnected from political reality. For one thing, the fact that Trump and his right-wing surrogates have been gradually building up a case for firing Mueller suggests that, at the very least, the notion that he could do so should not be dismissed out of hand. Similarly, there is no evidence from other media outlets that Trump believed Priebus, Sessions and Tillerson were plotting against him.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Republican Party has so far only stood up to Trump when it comes to the specific issue of sanctions against Russia. Aside from that issue, their approach toward the president has been fearful bordering on obsequious, so it's a stretch to say the least to imagine them plotting against him behind the scenes.
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