Defying Trump: Our new national pastime UPDATE 2: 44 PM: He has been fired. In its characteristically subtle way, the Trump administration suddenly demanded the resignations of 46 U.S. attorneys appointed by Barack Obama. It's not unusual for new presidents to clean out the prior administration's U.S. attorneys, but unlike Trump's mass dismissal late on Friday, it's usually only done once the president has appointed replacements for the Senate to confirm. But if Trump respected norms of presidential behavior or common decency, we'd have a functioning executive branch (not to mention his tax returns), and what fun would that be? But one attorney, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (despite appearing in almost every story about him, "crusading" isn't actually part of his title), is apparently