On Thursday night, The New York Times reported that President Trump tried to have Special Counsel Robert Mueller fired last June, soon after he was appointed to investigate the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. Other news organizations, including The Washington Post and, memorably, Fox News, corroborated the report. On Friday, Trump dismissed it, telling reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the report is "fake news, folks. Fake news. Typical New York Times fake stories."
Trump also said there was a "tremendous crowd" at Davos, "like they've never seen before," suggesting this was due to his debut at the World Economic Forum.
According to the reports, Trump was serious about having Mueller fired, egged on by his first legal team and advisers who warned that Mueller would dig into his finances. Reince Priebus and Stephen Bannon, Trump's chief of staff and chief strategist at the time, respectively, were opposed to the idea, and White House Counsel Don McGahn's threat to quit if Trump followed through is what convinced Trump to back down and shift to starting to cast doubts on the fairness of Mueller and his team.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump had planned to cite Mueller's perceived conflicts of interest, including his employment at a law firm that also represented Jared Kushner and Mueller's resignation from a Trump golf club in Virginia in 2011 after a billing dispute. "The dispute was hardly a dispute at all," The Washington Post reports. "According to a person familiar with the matter, Mueller had sent a letter requesting a dues refund in accordance with normal club practice and never heard back."
-
Australia weighs new gun laws after antisemitic attackSpeed Read A father and son opened fire on Jewish families at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing at least 15
-
Are Trump’s peace deals unraveling?Today’s Big Question Violence flares where the president claimed success
-
Political cartoons for December 15Cartoons Monday’s political cartoons include Time's person of the year, naughty and nice list, and more
-
Senate votes down ACA subsidies, GOP alternativeSpeed Read The Senate rejected the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, guaranteeing a steep rise in health care costs for millions of Americans
-
Abrego García freed from jail on judge’s orderSpeed Read The wrongfully deported man has been released from an ICE detention center
-
Indiana Senate rejects Trump’s gerrymander pushSpeed Read The proposed gerrymander would have likely flipped the state’s two Democratic-held US House seats
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
