The Trump-Sessions bromance may be over

Attorney General Jeff Sessions used to be one of Donald Trump's closest advisers. Those days are long gone

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published July 17, 2017 6:04PM (EDT)

 (Getty/Win McNamee)
(Getty/Win McNamee)

President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions used to be the best of friends. They met when Sessions shared Trump's scathing appraisal of how much the United Nations was going to charge Americans for renovations, prompting Sessions to invite the future president to testify as an expert witness. Sessions even called Trump's performance "the most impressive congressional testimony I’ve ever heard."

The friendship blossomed when Sessions was among the first sitting senators to endorse Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, for which he subsequently served as an informal adviser. Eventually, it culminated in Trump choosing Sessions as his attorney general.

But Sessions' actions in that capacity have, it seems, brought an end to their bromance.

Trump continues to hold a grudge against Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, according to a report by Axios. He not only views Sessions' decision as a sign of weakness but believes that it provided Democrats with an opening to further pursue the ongoing Russia scandal.

"Trump's top-line association for Sessions: The guy who showed tremendous weakness and caused tremendous problems by needlessly recusing himself from the Russia investigation," writes Axios, noting that Trump has "top-line associations" that he uses for many of his employees.

The article notes that Trump's personal anger toward Sessions has not translated into an alteration of the attorney general's policies. There has never been serious thought given to the possibility of firing Sessions, and he fully supports Sessions in his campaign to double-down on policies like waging the war on drugs. The difference here seems to be a hang-up on how Sessions handled a specific crisis.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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