One of the questions I have heard repeated over the past few days is "Is Trump trolling us and the Congress" or some variation. The question is being asked by those in Congress, media members, and at least in my case, regular citizens.
The question was being asked in regard to the following Trump tweet. "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
There are actually two questions here. First, is this a threat by the president? Second, is Trump taping his conversations? It is the second question that brings up the trolling question. Trump and his surrogates have refused to comment on the taping issue. Sean Spicer has stonewalled the press on their questions about White House taping. Trump has also declined to answer questions on the subject.
I'm not overly concerned about whether Trump is taping his conversations. That is legal and is his prerogative. I would point out that White House taping has a track record of not turning out well for the occupants.
What is concerning is that the term "trolling" comes into the discussion. Is the president trolling Congress? The fact that those in the government and the media think that Trump may be lying or trying to fool them is disturbing. It appears that there is little confidence in the veracity of what comes out of Trump's mouth or from his surrogates. (That last sentence was written with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek.)
It would be one thing if the administration was putting out misinformation as part of a particular objective or a long term strategy with foreign governments. This looks like a scramble to do damage control for a botched firing.
Trolling and president don't belong in the same sentence. Congress, the people, and the world need to have some confidence that we are not being trolled or played.
Unfortunately, this too will probably quickly pass as Trump and his minions stumble into the next cluster fuck.
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