Four years ago this Monday, Donald Trump pressured Mike Pence to pursue a surreal interpretation of the vice president’s constitutional role in counting the Electoral College’s votes.
Now Mr. Trump is selecting key personnel for his second term.
Mr. Trump’s obsessiveness stems purportedly from an unhappy first term, when too many senior advisers were not “loyal” to him.
These officials had separate agendas, Mr. Trump’s advocates say, undermining, frustrating, even reversing the president’s decisions and thereby illegitimately usurping his power.
Such usurpers were considered denizens of the “deep state,” Republicans in Name Only, conspiratorially linked by a desire to cripple Mr. Trump’s presidency.
Persons:
Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Pence, Trump, Trump’s, ”, illegitimately, Mark Esper, Mark Milley
Organizations:
Name, Trump