Are Steven Mnuchin And Mike Pompeo The Greatest Heroes Ever To Contemplate Saving America From Trump?

Not if former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller has anything to say about it!

How many posts per day do we have that are just excerpts from Jonathan Karl's new book (Wonkette cut link)? All of them, Katie!

Karl's book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show reports that after the January 6 terrorist attack Donald Trump incited on the Capitol, the 25th Amendment was fiiiiiinally discussed. By Mike Pence, whom Trump's supporters ran around the Capitol screaming "Hang Mike Pence" about? Nah.

Apparently, according to Karl, it was discussed by Steven Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo, who were serving as Treasury secretary and secretary of State, respectively. (This is as good a time as any to note that since Trump is the reputational equivalent of toxic smegma poo sludge from the underside of a dead cat's grundle at this point, it's possible folks are using Karl to launder their reputations here, so that they may later say, "Oh no, St. Peter, I tried to do the right thing, HONEST! Did you all even read Jon Karl's book?")

The report, which is in Rolling Stone, says Munch called Pompeo the evening of January 6 like "Sup! 25?" and Pompeo was like "Sup." Or some words along those lines:

"I learned that Mnuchin had several conversations about the 25th Amendment and, further, that Mike Pompeo actually asked for a legal analysis of the 25th Amendment and how it would work," Karl said during an appearance on MSNBC Monday morning.

According to Karl, the idea was "quickly jettisoned" the next day as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao resigned, leaving Mnuchin to realize that using the Constitution to push Trump out of office would take too much time and would almost certainly face legal challenges. Mnuchin, however, did not resign.

"It would not be quick enough and it would be subject to legal challenges," Karl said, explaining why the plan was abandoned. "But in the hours after the riot, there were high-level conversations about this."

We are not an expert in exactly how long it would have taken to do the 25th Amendment from takeoff to landing, but we feel like if the whole Cabinet had gotten behind the idea they coulda gotten it done. We are just saying. Chao and DeVos resigning did not do the job. We remember laughing at them that day .

Also hey, know when a good time to 25th Trump as unfit for office would have been? When Trump started committing 50 crimes a day and actively working against the interests of the United States and giving aid and comfort to our enemies from inside the Oval Office, which started the second he raised his right hand and lied his way through his oath to protect America from all enemies both foreign and himself.

Pompeo denies the story, because we guess he still has a reputation to uphold as a heat-seeking missile for Donald Trump's b-hole. Karl says his sources are "rock solid."

So that's that story.

In related news of Trump officials making themselves look real good in Jon Karl's history books, former (acting) Defense Secretary Chris Miller had a clever and creative and whimsical strategy for keeping Trump from bombing Iran. What he did, you see, was he pretended HE was the crazy one, trying to act like a "fucking madman," the book says, to make Trump be like, "Hey now, that'll be enough nutty behavior in MY White House!" and decide not to bomb Iran after all.

According to Karl, Miller came into the job with the modest goals of "no military coup, no major war, and no troops in the streets," echoing concerns [Mark] Esper also had before his firing. 

Sounds great. So on November 12, 2020, just after Trump lost the election, they were all in the Sit Room — Trump, Pence, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, and goddamn Statler Mnuchin and Waldorf Pompeo up there with their fucking 25th Amendment, apparently — when they learned that according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran was doing Naughty Uraniums.

Clearly it was time for Chris Miller to do His Strategy!

So when Trump asked if we could just bomb shit and take out the Iranian nuclear program, Miller made sure to get a little TOO excited about it.

"We're probably going to lose some planes," he said. "It's just the nature of the business. You'll probably see some three, four, or six planes shot down. I just want to make sure you are comfortable with that."

Just gonna lose some planes, no big. Just some gnarly American death.

And apparently on and on it went, with Miller excitedly telling Trump — as part of his TRICK, mind you — how awesome it was going to be to start bombing the shit of Iran. He was reportedly so convincing that Mike Pompeo grew alarmed!

The episode was apparently alarming for Pompeo — who was otherwise one of the biggest Iran hawks in the Trump administration — prompting him to rebut Miller during the meeting and declare that such a strike would be a mistake, potentially leading to a larger war in the region. According to the book, Pompeo later called Attorney General Bill Barr to express his concerns with the Pentagon's new leadership, fearing they could drive Trump to start a war with Iran.

He should have told people beforehand that this was all part of The Plan. Because it was!

But for Miller, it was all a giant exercise in reverse psychology, he said. [...]

"I would play the fucking madman," Miller told Karl. "And everybody else would be like, 'All right, he's the new guy. He's fucking insane. Don't listen to him.' I was like, 'Hey, if we are going to do this shit, let's do it.'" [...]

"I have found oftentimes with provocative people, if you get more provocative than them, they then have to dial it down," Miller told Karl. "They're like, 'Yeah, I was fucking crazy,' but that guy's batshit.'"

OK.

Hey look, maybe it happened that way. And if so, that was a risky little game , sir!

In summary and in conclusion, Steven Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo and Chris Miller are the best little patriots who ever were born, they're so patriotic they fart hairballs that look just like George Washington's wigs, and their orgasms sound like Lee Greenwood doing the "Proud to Be an American" song on a stage in the middle of a lake full of bald eagle jizz, that's how patriotic they are, the end.

[ Rolling Stone / Business Insider ]

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