Turmoil in the Kingdom

Meetings with the National Security Council have no glamor, and thus no TV appeal. So, T-Rump has no time for that.  NSC employees will just have to figure out a way to try to figure out what he wants, and get messages to him by another route.  How about Twitter?  It's not like he's going to care what they have to say, anyway.

These are chaotic and anxious days inside the National Security Council, the traditional center of management for a president’s dealings with an uncertain world.

Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them. Most are kept in the dark about what Mr. Trump tells foreign leaders in his phone calls.

[...]

The national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, has hunkered down since investigators began looking into what, exactly, he told the Russian ambassador to the United States about the lifting of sanctions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration, and whether he misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations.

[...]

This account of life inside the council — offices made up of several hundred career civil servants who advise the president on counterterrorism, foreign policy, nuclear deterrence and other issues of war and peace — is based on conversations with more than two dozen current and former council staff members and others throughout the government. All spoke on the condition that they not be quoted by name for fear of reprisals.

  NYT

This is the exactly what T-Rump is looking for in government employees: fear of reprisals.

[M]ost of the cabinet haven’t even been in government before.

[...]

New Trump appointees are carrying coffee mugs with [the Make America Great Again] Trump campaign slogan into meetings with foreign counterparts, one staff member said.

[...]

“It’s so far a very dysfunctional N.S.C.,” Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a telephone interview.

Good luck keeping your post, Adam.

Two officials said that at one recent meeting, there was talk of feeding suggested Twitter posts to the president so the council’s staff would have greater influence.

That could actually work.

Last week, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was exploring whether the Navy could intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen.

A page out of the Israeli playbook.

But the ship was in international waters in the Arabian Sea, according to two officials. Mr. Mattis ultimately decided to set the operation aside, at least for now.

[...]

And while Mr. Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, council staff members are now being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps.

“The president likes maps,” one official said.

[...]

Officials said that the absence of an orderly flow of council documents, ultimately the responsibility of Mr. Flynn, explained why Mr. Mattis and Mike Pompeo, the director of the C.I.A., never saw a number of Mr. Trump’s executive orders before they were issued.

[...]

[Flynn's] aides say he is insecure about whether his unfettered access to Mr. Trump during the campaign is being scaled back and about a shadow council created by Stephen K. Bannon.

And, speaking of Mr. Flynn...

Two people with direct access to the White House leadership said Mr. Flynn was surprised to learn that the State Department and Congress play a pivotal role in foreign arms sales and technology transfers.

[...]

Several staff members said that Mr. Flynn, who was a career Army officer, was not familiar with how to call up the National Guard in an emergency.

Apparently, he has a lot to learn for his job as National Security Adviser.

On Dec. 28, President Obama took actions against Russia in response to Moscow’s role in undermining the American elections. On Dec. 29, Flynn allegedly had multiple conversations with the Russian ambassador, including a chat about the sanctions.

[...]

Flynn, who previously insisted no such conversations took place, is now saying he’s not sure whether sanctions came up during his calls with Kislyak or not.

[...]

Why did Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer tell the public Flynn didn’t talk about sanctions with the Russian ambassador?

There are really only two possibilities: Either Flynn told his colleagues a lie, which they repeated because they believed him, or Flynn told them the truth, and they chose to help cover up his alleged wrongdoing.

For his part, Pence and his office have gone out of their way to say that the vice president relied entirely on Flynn’s word when he addressed the subject publicly. In other words, the VP is arguing that he was lied to.

  MSNBC

Unfortunately for the VP, he's not high on the White House totem.

Despite the uproar on Friday, the president spoke briefly to reporters on Friday aboard Air Force One, where he claimed to have no idea what story journalists were even referring to. “I don’t know about that, I haven’t seen it,” Trump said. “What report is that? I haven’t seen that. I’ll look into that.”

Yeah, that sounds real.  Imagine talking to the Russians without letting T-Rump know.  I don't believe it.

Although Mr. Trump suggested to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that he was unaware of the latest questions swirling around Mr. Flynn’s dealings with Russia, aides said over the weekend in Florida — where Mr. Flynn accompanied the president and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe — that Mr. Trump was closely monitoring the reaction to Mr. Flynn’s conversations.

Why would he have Flynn with him during Abe's visit? Doesn't sound like access to T-Rump is being scaled back.  I think the Rump told him to talk to the Russians. Maybe he's setting him up, but he's definitely using the man for some end. And T-Rump knowing about (ordering) the Flynn conversation would not mean Pence wasn't lied to. Pence, I think, is going to find his job extremely difficult. He may often find himself on the outside looking in, being the fool and possibly the scapegoat. He'll learn to just keep his mouth shut.

There are transcripts of a conversation in at least one phone call, recorded by American intelligence agencies that wiretap foreign diplomats, which may determine Mr. Flynn’s future.

The Times report doesn't elucidate that statement.

Like anyone else in the administration, Flynn can be FIRED! without notice or concern, whether he does the Rump's bidding or not. T-Rump cares for no one but himself. The rest of the world are props for his selfie.

[Robin Townley, a] top deputy to national security adviser Michael Flynn was rejected for a critical security clearance, effectively ending his tenure on the National Security Council and escalating tensions between Flynn and the intelligence community.

The move came as Flynn’s already tense relationships with others in the Trump administration and the intelligence community were growing more fraught after reports that Flynn had breached diplomatic protocols in his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

[...]

“They believe this is a hit job from inside the CIA on Flynn and the people close to him,” said one source, who argued that some in the intelligence community feel threatened by Flynn and his allies.

[...]

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, dismissed as “baloney” any suggestion that the clearance was denied because the intelligence community was trying to brush back Flynn.

Trump and Flynn “see treachery everywhere they go.”

  Politico

Schiff, you could be skating on thin ice.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.