Clueless, or just pretending?

Donald Trump is telling friends and aides in private that things are going great — for him.

Some reasons: He's decided that a key witness in the Russia probe, Paul Manafort, isn't going to "flip" and sell him out, friends and aides say. He believes Robert Mueller, who heads the investigation, can be crushed, if necessary, without being fired. Sweeping tax and regulatory cuts will juice the economy and get him re-elected in 2020, he is predicting. He thinks he's learned how to handle the dysfunction of Congress.

  NBC

I'm sure Trump thinks he's the greatest, and he sees himself as a winner, but I think he feels compelled to bluster because he hasn't really convinced himself, believing other people will believe what he tells them. I think down deep, he's scared. Well, down as deep as Donald Trump goes, which isn't far.

"He called to congratulate me on how brilliant and prescient I was to tell him to run for president," said one friend, who asked not to be identified, laughing at the thought. "What he was really doing was flattering himself by flattering me. But for him, it was a long and very enjoyable monologue."

[...]

"He loves all the pomp and circumstance and the salutes," said another friend.

You see, he doesn't really have friends.  Any more than he has a strategy.

[Trump's] first-year job rating is the worst of any president in modern times. Scholars are comparing him to James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson, the two most inept embarrassments in the history of the presidency. Polls show that the country is deeply divided and dispirited about its future. Even allies condemn his racist rants and juvenile Twitter feuds with pop stars.

[...]

Trump — who trusts no one, or at least no one for long — has now decided that he must have an alternative strategy that does not involve having Justice Department officials fire Mueller.

"I think he's been convinced that firing Mueller would not only create a firestorm, it would play right into Mueller's hands," said another friend, "because it would give Mueller the moral high ground."

Not to mention, get Trump into even hotter water.

Instead, as is now becoming plain, the Trump strategy is to discredit the investigation and the FBI without officially removing the leadership. Trump is even talking to friends about the possibility of asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Mueller and his team.

Yeah, right. For what? He's all talk.

"Here's how it would work: 'We're sorry, Mr. Mueller, you won't be able to run the federal grand jury today because he has to go testify to another federal grand jury,'" said one Trump adviser.

Which is actually what he's getting by the House Intel opening an investigation into the FBI and DOJ. That's part of the plan. Prosecuting Mueller isn't in the works. They're not that stupid. No court in the land would hear that case.

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