Trump insider on 'thin ice' after 'boxing' in president as crisis mounts
Add MSNBC contributor John Heilemann to the list of Washington, D.C. insiders who believe that there is a growing schism between Donald Trump and his top intel adviser as the threat of a major war in the Middle East seems imminent.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Heilemann was asked by a report from Politico that Trump is "incensed" with DNI Tulsi Gabbard after she posted a video online that warned of a doomsday scenario of nuclear war that caught the Trump administration off-guard.
Combined with the growing tensions between Israel and Iran, where the very real threat of war seems to be growing as Trump strongly aligns himself with saber-rattling Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
According to Heilemann, the president now finds himself "boxed in" by claims from members of his own administration and his growing public announcements that are contradictory.
With co-host Joe Scarborough calling Gabbard's video "a bizarre thing to do" without consulting with the president, he asked Heilemann about the divided administration.
"First of all, if you're going to in a conventional administration, if you're a senior official and you want to try to influence the president's thinking, you generally don't want to leave fingerprints, right?" a smiling Heilemann began. "So you go on background as a senior official or a source familiar in the New York Times. You don't put out a highly produced video with you speaking straight to camera."
"She's weighing in and speaking straight to camera, basically saying if the president does this, he's going to lead us to World War III," a laughing Scarborough interjected.
"It looks more like a Democratic attack ad than it looks like than a part of a product of internal debate inside the Trump administration," Heilemann agreed. "So Tulsi Gabbard may be on thin ice there because Trump does not like to have his –– to feel like he's been boxed in by people who work for him."
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