Trump uses discrediting skills on Mueller

Source: The Hill | May 29, 2018 | Amie Parnes

President Trump is the discreditor-in-chief.

In his short political career, Trump has been all about sizing up opponents and then tearing them down, one-by-one.

Think “low-energy Jeb” Bush, “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz and “crooked Hillary” Clinton.

The insults, which serve to fire up Trump’s base and poison people against his political enemies, have served the president well, contributing to his extraordinary rise in 2016.

“He’s very effective at making it personal,” said Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist who has frequently opposed Trump’s positions.

“This is exactly how a billionaire TV personality became more relatable,” she said. “He breaks it down to a common denominator. And what’s so appealing to his supporters is he does it so convincingly. He’s not trying to hedge his bets. He’s never backing down and that’s attractive to a certain group of voters. It keeps him real.”

Since taking office, the president hasn’t slowed down with his takedowns of political opponents, including “nut job” James Comey, the former FBI director whose firing directly let to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.

But in Mueller, a war hero and legendary FBI man, Trump arguably faces his biggest challenge.

To date, Trump hasn’t really come up with a belittling nickname for Mueller. For nearly the entire first year of the probe, Trump’s attorneys advised him to cooperate with the special counsel, believing that was the best way to persevere.

The strategy has changed in recent months with the remade Trump legal team now led by the pugnacious former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, who like the president is a headline maker who enjoys duking it out in the press.

It’s led to a more heads-on strategy of dealing with the special counsel’s prove, even if to date it hasn’t led to the kinds of personal attacks Trump made famous in the presidential campaign.

Nonetheless, the Trump discrediting machine is at full force when it comes to the special counsel probe, or the “Russian Collusion Witch Hunt” as it is described on Trump’s Twitter account.

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