They're Back

Mike Flynn is out. And he's out because he followed his boss's lead: he did something he shouldn't have done and then he lied about it. The irony is rich. But the whole episode takes place as details about how Trump has been dealing with the North Korean missile launch leak out. Trump got the news when he was having dinner at Mar -a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe -- in the public dining room. Richard Wolfe writes:

Now: what do Michael Flynn and Mar-a-Lago mean for national security?

To the fee-paying members of Trump’s Florida club, it means greater access to watch the president and Japanese prime minister reacting to the news of a North Korean missile launch in real time: huddling over documents and making phone calls on cellphones in public.

One of the guests who was paying for his dinner took out his cellphone, then told the world what happened next:

As one guest, Richard DeAgazio, put it on Facebook: “HOLY MOLY!!! It was fascinating to watch the flurry of activity at dinner when the news came that North Korea had launched a missile in the direction of Japan. The Prime Minister Abe of Japan huddles with his staff and the President is on the phone with Washington DC…Wow…the center of the action!!!

Wolfe reminds his readers:

It was the homestretch of the presidential election and national security wasn’t some side issue, mentioned in passing. Trump promised he would be a tough national security president with the toughest national security team.

In fact, one of his favorite arguments was that Hillary Clinton couldn’t be trusted with the country’s national security because, he claimed, she couldn’t be trusted with her private email server.

The irony is Shakespearean. During the George W. Bush  administration a phrase surfaced  to describe Bush's personnel -- the Mayberry Machiavellis. If you thought they had disappeared, you were wrong.

They're back.