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I still remember my surprise when Jeff Sessions strolled onto the stage at then-candidate Donald Trump's rally in Mobile, Alabama, in August 2016, donning a "Make America Great Again" hat. It was the first show of support Trump had from an elected official at that level.

At the time, I still believed Trump's candidacy was a joke. Sessions' decision to legitimize him would only make the senator look foolish. But Sessions saw something in Trump's appeal I missed: The lawyer and politician who built a career around disenfranchising the already disenfranchised knew that after eight years of a black president, white Americans were ready to elect one who appealed to their sense of entitled resentment.

He was right; I was wrong. And now he's attorney general of the United States.

Or at least he's attorney general as I write this. It's quite possible by the time you read this column, Sessions will no longer run the Justice Department fired or forced to resign by a president who has so far spent a week humiliating him.

Trump isn't being subtle about it. He hasn't hinted he'd rather see his AG bow out gracefully. He's called him "VERY weak" and "beleaguered." (There's something poetic about calling someone beleaguered when you're the one beleaguering him.)

When other high-profile Trump supporters like Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani were dumped by the roadside without administration jobs, Sessions ended up with one of the most powerful jobs in the nation and the opportunity to enact the regressive agenda targeting minorities he's always dreamed about. So why is Trump humiliating him now?

President Trump isn't happy about the various investigations ("witch hunt!") into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia and his own potential obstruction of justice, but it's Robert Mueller's independent investigation that angers and scares him the most. It's run out of the Department of Justice; Jeff Sessions runs the Department of Justice. Ergo, by Trump's thinking, Sessions should be able to shut it down. But Sessions' recusal from the Trump/Russia investigation made his firing Mueller impossible. And it's that recusal explicitly driving Trump's fury.

Trump sees the recusal as the ultimate act of disloyalty. Why should he have appointed an attorney general who wouldn't be able to protect him? Forget that Sessions only recused himself because of the heat he faced for lying under oath in his confirmation hearing about his own contacts with Russians. Forget that protecting the president is not the attorney general's job. What matters is if you work for Trump, you give him your loyalty. Take James Comey: He wouldn't give his, and he's out of a job.

Only it isn't loyalty Trump actually wants from the people around him. There's something noble in true loyalty standing by a person who deserves your support and returns it. But loyalty to Trump is never a two-way street. He doesn't return it or even reward it.

Trump doesn't want your loyalty. He wants your fealty.

There's a real difference. When you sign up to join Trump's circle in any capacity, you're signing away your dignity. Sessions is just the latest example. Sean Spicer stood at a podium and lied for six straight months on Trump's behalf. He was a successful and well-liked political operative. Now he's an unemployed national punchline. Trump wouldn't even let the poor bastard meet the pope, just to humiliate him.

That's how Trump treats people who serve him faithfully. No one is safe from the president's mercurial moods. He even threw a passive-aggressive "he's a high-quality person" at his own son. Was it any wonder Jeff Sessions would eventually meet an ugly end?

You can live up to the demands of loyalty by always doing what you think is best for a person. But you can never live up to the demands of fealty set by an egomaniac like Donald Trump. You'd have to be telepathic and clairvoyant, knowing both what Trump is thinking and what all his future moods will look like. You have to anticipate every obstacle, real or imagined. You have to do more than just lie for Trump. You have to honestly believe his distorted, constantly shifting vision of reality. That's an impossible standard to meet.

I have no sympathy for Jeff Sessions. He's a terrible attorney general because he's a terrible human being. Since taking office, he has encouraged police toincrease asset forfeitures, told federal prosecutors toput people in jail as long as possible, spoken to ananti-gay hate group, ended an effort toraise standards of forensic science, ramped up enforcementagainst undocumented immigrants, shut down reviews ofabuses by police departments, threatened to take DOJ grantsaway from sanctuary cities, went all Reefer Madness, stopped a DOJ fight against a Texas lawrolling back voting rights, and moved backward ontransgender rights.

Of course Sessions should be fired. Our nation's top law enforcement officer should be someone who fights to restore the rights and power of Americans who lack both. But at every opportunity, Sessions fights for the powerful and against the oppressed. He has no place in a department named Justice.

But somehow Trump has managed to find the one bad reason to fire Sessions. The only thing he's done right since becoming attorney general was recusing himself from the Russian investigation (and that was only half-right he should have resigned), and Trump is on the verge of sending him packing because that action was inconvenient to Donald Trump.

To anyone out there considering joining this administration: This is the fate that awaits you. You can do what Comey refused to do and pledge your undying loyalty to Trump. It won't be enough. You can do everything he asks you to do. It won't be enough. It will never be enough. Only one person on earth shows President Trump the fealty he demands, and he sees him every time he looks in the mirror.

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Donald Trump Doesn't Want Loyalty He Wants Fealty - RollingStone.com

He keeps telling us that hes president and were not. Does he know that hes president and shes not? Does he realize that most Americans can go a whole day, an entire week verily, a month! without picturing her at a rostrum, hearing the melody of her stump speech or repeating, Im with her?

At least they could if Trump would shut up about her. I understand that he misses her, but, sheesh, send some Godiva chocolates and move on.

Many political observers have been marveling at recent tweets of his that blasted Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, for not reinvestigating and potentially prosecuting Clinton for supposed crimes. He ripped into Sessions anew at a brief news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

But the other half of that equation is Clinton, and its just as remarkable that more than eight months after Election Day, Trump is still hauling his vanquished opponent out for public ridicule and marching her toward the stockade. Did Barack Obama do that with John McCain or George Bush with Al Gore or Bill Clinton with the previous George Bush? No, no and no.

Many political observers have noted Trumps hyperconsciousness of Barack Obama, who was also mentioned in those remarks to the boy scouts, which were so inappropriately political and self-centered that parents actually lodged complaints.

But Clinton is more precious to him. While he merely itches to erase Obama from the history books, hes desperate to keep her at the center of every page. Beneath all of his braggadocio about the genius of his campaign strategy and the potency of his connection to blue-collar Americans, he knows that he made it to the White House largely because many voters didnt want her there and he was Door No. 2.

So he reminds them of that. Over and over again.

It would be one thing if he had amassed a trove of accomplishments and watched his approval ratings climb. But the opposite is true, so he depends on a foil who flatters him, a fork in the road that he can portray as rockier and swampier. Thats Clintons role, and its more important than Jareds and Ivankas and the Moochs combined. They whisper sweet nothings. She saves him from damnation.

Dont look at his campaigns relationship with Russia. Look at hers with Ukraine! Dont focus on Don Jr.s incriminating emails. Focus on her missing ones! And while youre at it, tally up how many of her donors are on Robert Muellers staff and take fresh note of her big-dollar speeches. Seldom has a scapegoat grazed in such a profusion of pastures.

Hes more or less back to chanting lock her up, as if its early November all over again. He has frozen the calendar there so that he can perpetually savor the exhilaration of the campaign and permanently evade the drudgery of governing and the ignominy of his failure at it so far.

Nov. 8 is his Groundhog Day, on endless repeat, in a way that pleases and pacifies him. That movie has a co-star, Clinton. If he dwells in it, he dwells with her. He can no more retire her than Miss Havisham, in Great Expectations, could put away her wedding dress. Clinton brings Trump back to the moment before the rose lost its blush and the heartache set in.

During the second of their three debates, he was accused of shadowing her onstage, but that was nothing next to the way he pursues her now. His administration slips further into chaos; he diverts the discussion to her. Shes the answer to evolving scandals. Shes the antidote to a constipated agenda or so he wagers. What stature he has inadvertently given her. And what extraordinary staying power.

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Donald Trump's Dominatrix - New York Times

(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Electronics giant Foxconn will build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that's expected to create 3,000 jobs.

The announcement comes at a critical juncture for a Trump administration that pledged to generate manufacturing jobs but has struggled to deliver results as quickly as the president promised. Trump's plans for health care and tax cuts face an uncertain future in Congress, while his administration is bogged down by an investigation into Russia's possible ties with his presidential campaign.

The factory will produce liquid-crystal display panels that are used in televisions and computer screens, according to a senior White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss the announcement. Foxconn will locate its plant in the congressional district of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, although the official declined to provide a specific location.

Foxconn could eventually employ 13,000 workers at the factory, the official said. This would mark a substantial gain for a state that currently has 472,000 manufacturing jobs and is still recovering from factory layoffs including the closure of a General Motors plant in Ryan's hometown that hit after the 2008 financial crisis.

Taiwan-based Foxconn is perhaps best known for assembling Apple iPhones in China.

The official said the White House was closely involved in Foxconn's decision to locate a factory in the United States and that the president had met personally with Foxconn chairman Terry Gou.

Seven states had competed for the Foxconn plant. The administration said it did not help steer Foxconn to Wisconsin in what would appear to be a victory for both Trump and the state's Republican governor, Scott Walker, who is up for re-election next year.

Foxconn did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday. Other states vying for the plant are Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Walker and several other Wisconsin officials, including Ryan and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, were expected at the White House announcement.

Republican leaders in the Wisconsin Senate have said Walker has been negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn to build such a factory in southeast Wisconsin.

Landing the multistate competition has been cast as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Foxconn is the biggest contract assembler of smartphones and other devices for Apple and other brands. It has been eyeing building the plant in a part of Wisconsin represented by Ryan, who said he has met with company officials at Walker's request.

Critics have cautioned that Foxconn has made promises before to invest in the U.S. and not followed through. Foxconn promised in 2013, for example, to invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new, high-tech factory in Pennsylvania that was never built.

Wisconsin could be on the hook for billions of dollars in incentives as part of the deal, though no details of the state's proposal have been released. State Sen. Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Wisconsin Legislature's budget committee, said any deal would be examined with a "fine-toothed comb" and need to win approval by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who is from Ryan's congressional district in southeast Wisconsin, told WTMJ-TV on Tuesday that Trump, when flying over the area in Kenosha County during a visit to Wisconsin in April, noticed vacant land where a former Chrysler Motors plant used to be.

"He said, 'That land should be used,'" Priebus said. "So when Foxconn came into the White House, into the Oval Office, the president said, 'I know a good spot that you should go to, that place in Kenosha.'"

That part of the state is an attractive location for a large plant because of the area's proximity to Lake Michigan and its abundant water supply. To make flat-panel displays, the company will need access to great quantities of water to keep work spaces dust-free, among other things.

The news sent a jolt of excitement across Wisconsin, even among longtime Democratic critics of Walker.

"It's an exciting opportunity," said Democratic state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca. He also met with Foxconn executives and said Walker's administration told him the deal could lead to 10,000 or more jobs.

Barca, like many Democrats, voiced concern about how much taxpayers may have to contribute in tax breaks and other incentives.

"We want to make sure it's a fair deal for everybody," he said. "We want a win-win-win."

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President Trump Announces $10 Billion Foxconn Factory in Wisconsin That Will Create 3000 Jobs - TIME

Stephen Colbert explained President Donald Trumps address to the Boy Scout Jamboree this week to his Late Show audience. With all his scandals, he needs somebody who is good at putting out fires.

He told the scout annual gathering that the press will lie about how many of them are attending the annual jamboree, mistaking it for one of his rallies.

You know they were going to be there anyway, right Colbert asks Trump rhetorically. Its their event, not yours.

Trump also told the scouts that Washington is not a good place and that very same day he had suggested no longer calling it a swamp, because its more a cesspool, or a sewer.

Colbert translated: Kids I come here to inspire you. Your government is a festering river of human waste and Im the madman who rules it on a throne of turds.

As Trump continued to pour poison into the ears of children, he began talking about a very successful man he know who bought a yacht and had a very interesting life, the details of which he declined to mention because you are boy scouts.

And he promised the scouts that, during his presidency, youll be saying Merry Christmas again when you go shopping which they have been downplaying recently.

Yes they have been downplaying it, for some reason, Colbert said. Im just spitballing here: maybe because its July.

Having absorbed the Presidents messages, the boy scouts have re-worked their oath, Colbert imagined:

On my honor, I will do my best to make a tremendous amount of money and buy a sex yacht like the old guy the president knows, to keep myself physically strong with golf and steak, and refer all questions to outside counsel. Merry Christmas.

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Stephen Colbert: Donald Trump Tells Boy Scouts Their Government Is Festering River Of Human Waste - Deadline

Let's review a few recent developments.

Last week, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned. This was part of a "White House shakeup" to get the Trump administration back on track. The new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, would fix the White House's "messaging problem."

Within 24 hours of Scaramucci's appointment, the president returned to Twitter and unloaded another torrent of political bombshells, including talking about his power to pardon, even as his attorneys were denying that Donald Trump was thinking about pardoning anyone.

Speaking of lawyers, earlier last week, the president's legal team underwent another "shakeup." That shakeup had similar results: no change.

Over the weekend, Trump returned to Twitter to vent his ire at his attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The former senator was the first major politician to endorse Trump, and more than any other figure Sessions lent conservative credibility and legitimacy to Trump's campaign.

The president insisted on Twitter that the "beleaguered" attorney general was taking a "weak position" on the need to prosecute Hillary Clinton for various alleged crimes.

This is an odd claim. The president himself announced after he was elected that Hillary had suffered enough and that all the "Lock her up!" stuff was campaign bluster.

When I say it is "odd," I'm being generous, because the claim is almost certainly a politically expedient lie. How do we know this? Because just days earlier, Trump sat down for an Oval Office interview with what he calls the "failing" and "fake" New York Times and said as much.

The president whined that Sessions had been "unfair" to him when the attorney general recused himself from the investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Never mind that the recusal was a political necessity at the time (whether it was a legal or ethical necessity is debated). Trump told the Times that if he had known Sessions was going to behave so ethically, he would never have appointed him.

In political terms, this was the equivalent of saying something to The New York Times that you would normally whisper to your closest advisor, if anybody at all.

The president has an elaborate theory that if Sessions hadn't recused himself, special counsel Robert Mueller wouldn't have been appointed.

It's a strange theory. Trump admitted he was taking the Russia investigation into consideration when he fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump tweeted about the possible existence of "tapes" of his conversations with Comey. Trump hired the man who appointed Mueller. On the campaign trail, Trump had openly called on Russia to continue its cyber war on the Clinton campaign.

In short, at every turn, the president has acted as if he has something to hide. Whether he actually does is an open question, but his obsession with the unfairness of the Russia story and his refusal to credit claims that the Russians meddled in the election, or to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin is a perpetual smoke machine causing people to think there's got to be a fire somewhere.

So what's my point? Simply: The author of Donald Trump's problems is first and foremost Donald Trump. It's fine to point out the excesses of the Democrats and the media. There's certainly ample reason to criticize his staff. It's understandable that Trump supporters think the "establishment," the "swamp" or the "Deep State" have undermined him because they have.

But Trump is not a victim. He is the hamster spinning the wheel in the massive Rube Goldberg machine that is the spectacle of presidential dysfunction.

Every few weeks, the debate about his tweeting starts again. It's like the gun control debate. Guns are to blame! No, criminals are to blame! Guns don't kill people, people do.

It's all nonsense. Twitter is a tool. Barack Obama had a Twitter account, too. Trump puts the bullets in the social media gun, and Trump pulls the trigger, aiming at his own foot with unerring accuracy.

After every good speech, the clock restarts and the Trump train is "back on track." Then, Trump acts like Trump again and the clock gets reset to zero. Spicer's departure changed nothing. Firing Jeff Sessions will change nothing. Shakeups change nothing. Shake the White House snow globe all you like. The scene doesn't change much, and when things settle down, there Trump remains, being Trump. It won't change, because he can't change. Character is destiny, now and forever.

Tribune Content Agency

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.

goldbergcolumn@gmail.com

Twitter @JonahNRO

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Donald Trump is not a victim - Chicago Tribune