Aaron Blake reminds us of other reasons – other than the danger of Putin – to be very afraid of Trump’s confidence that he knows what he’s doing without any help from pesky adults.

The episode crystallizes Trump’s tendency to eschew basically any expert guidance — even on issues of huge import. That certainly has implications for U.S. relations with Russia and for efforts to combat Russian interference in U.S. elections. On the latter, Trump has declined to take a harsh tone and has even suggested that he believes Putin’s denials. But, more immediately, it has huge implications for Trump’s impending meeting with Kim.

Immediately the blood temperature drops.

Trump’s penchant for off-the-cuff diplomacy and policymaking has been on

Yesterday it was the leak from the White House that Trump ignored what the security people told him and high-fived Putin for the stolen election and refrained from asking him about that pesky nerve agent thing in Salisbury. Today it’s the outrage over the leak.

The leak was rather striking. CNN says Trump was still at home in his jammies (i.e. “in the residence” having “executive time”) when he made the call.

Trump was fuming Tuesday night, asking his allies and outside advisers who they thought had leaked the information, noting that only a small group of staffers have access to those materials and would have known what guidance was included for the Putin call, the source said.

So … Read the rest

Oh there’s more. Trump was actually specifically told not to congratulate Putin on the election. By people who do actually know what’s in the security briefings, unlike Trump who refuses to read them or listen to them read by others. But he was elected King and Emperor and God so he can do whatever he wants to.

President Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers when he congratulated Russian President Vladi­mir Putin Tuesday on his reelection, including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE,” according to officials familiar with the call.

Brief shmief. He used to be a tv star, he don’t need no stinkin brief.

Trump also

People expect so much of Trump – he can’t even make a damn personal phone call without kibitzers turning up to list all the things he didn’t talk about.

President Trump on Tuesday congratulated President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his recent re-election victory, but failed to ask him about either the fairness of the Russian vote, which Mr. Putin won with a lopsided margin, or about allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr. Trump also did not raise Russia’s apparent role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on British soil — an act that prompted the United States to join with Britain, France and Germany in denouncing

The New York Post reports an exclusive:

President Trump must face a defamation suit filed by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge denied him immunity through his job as the nation’s commander-in-chief.

“In Clinton v Jones the United States Supreme Court held that a sitting president is not immune from being sued in federal court for unofficial acts,” Justice Jennifer Schecter wrote in a ruling released Tuesday, citing the sexual harassment suit that led to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

This means that Zervos can pursue her defamation case against Trump for saying she made up the story that … Read the rest

Oh look, no women. No women at all.

#Washington| #Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed and #Trump hold a lunch work meeting at the #WhiteHouse#CrownprinceinUSA https://t.co/Vx8eiJAykq pic.twitter.com/GKnKQKe0sg

— Asharq Al-Awsat English (@aawsat_eng) March 20, 2018

… Read the rest

Poor Don. No sooner does the Post report that he’s hoping to add an actual grown-up lawyer to his legal team than it has to update with the news that no he won’t, because the actual grown-up lawyer said hell no.

President Trump’s legal team has at times rivaled its client when it comes to unforced errors and strange behavior. And the team became even more colorful Monday when it added Joseph E. diGenova, a former U.S. attorney who has spent recent months detailing a deep-state conspiracy against Trump on Fox.

But the latest potential addition to Trump’s team could take things in a totally different — and more disciplined — direction.

The Washington Post’s Robert Costa and Carol

Trump decides to hire another wack job for his legal team, because things aren’t weird enough yet.

President Trump has decided to hire the longtime Washington lawyer Joseph E. diGenova, who has pushed the theory on television that Mr. Trump was framed by F.B.I. and Justice Department officials, to bolster his legal team, according to three people told of the decision.

Good idea; that’s what Don needs: more wack jobs on his “legal team.”

Mr. diGenova is not expected to take a lead role but will instead serve as a more aggressive player on the president’s legal team. Mr. Trump broke over the weekend from the longstanding advice of some of his lawyers that he refrain from directly attacking the

Trump plans to kill more people.

President Donald Trump will roll out new plans to tackle the country’s opioid epidemic on Monday in New Hampshire, the White House said Sunday. The plan will include stiffer penalties for high-intensity drug traffickers, including the death penalty for some dealers, Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters Sunday.

The concept of the death penalty for certain drug traffickers is something Trump has been outspoken about, but this will be the first time it will be part of an official administration plan.

“The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it’s appropriate under current law,” Bremberg told reporters during a phone call Sunday

Ruth Marcus on Trump’s efforts to control what people say about him:

[Robert] Costa [in April 2016]: “One thing I always wondered, are you going to make employees of the federal government sign nondisclosure agreements?”

Trump: “I think they should. . . . And I don’t know, there could be some kind of a law that you can’t do this. But when people are chosen by a man to go into government at high levels and then they leave government and they write a book about a man and say a lot of things that were really guarded and personal, I don’t like that. I mean, I’ll be honest. And people would say, oh, that’s terrible, you’re taking away

The Post sums up the state of play:

McCabe’s firing — coupled with the comments from Trump and his personal attorney, John Dowd on Saturday — marked an extraordinary acceleration of the battle between the president and the special counsel, whose probe Trump has long dismissed as a politically motivated witch hunt.

Or to put it another way, an extraordinary acceleration of the battle between Trump and the rule of law.

[Trump’s personal lawyer John] Dowd said in a Saturday morning statement, “I pray that Acting Attorney General Rosenstein will follow the brilliant and courageous example of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and bring an end to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s