Monday, October 30, was a bad day for President Trump. A 31-page indictment of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former business associate, Rick Gates, was released early that same day as the duo turned themselves in for processing. According to the Washington Post article titled “ Upstairs at home, with the TV on, Trump fumes over Russia indictments ,” Trump began the day early, waking in the pre-dawn hours to squirrel himself away inside the White House residence, away from much of the staff in the West Wing – folks that began worrying why Trump wasn’t in the Oval Office yet.
Instead, Trump watched TV and grew angry at the news about criminal indictments. George Papadopoulos admitted to lying to investigators. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s latest findings both disgusted the president and caused exasperation, according to at least 20 sources who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity. Those same White House sources claim that Trump continually called his lawyers as he watched Manafort turn himself in to the FBI.
Those who came in contact with Trump on Monday claimed that he wore his anger on his sleeve, and the White House was filled with fear of what’s to come.
“The walls are closing in. Everyone is freaking out.”
One well-connected senior Republican who is close to White House top brass told the Washington Post that the mood on Pennsylvania Avenue is pure freak-out mode.
Nevertheless, Trump put on a happy face when it was time for the president and First Lady Melania Trump to interact with children and pass out candy at the White House. But folks like Melania and other members of Trump’s family were deep in the recesses of Trump’s mind, according to the Washington Post , who pegs Trump as “increasingly agitated by the expansion of Mueller’s probe into financial issues beyond the 2016 campaign and about the potential to him and his family.”
With the inside peek into Trump’s reaction to “Indictment Monday” coming from the Washington Post ‘s interviews with 20 senior Trump administration officials, as well as friends of Trump and “outside allies,” it is clear that the image painted by Sarah Sanders from the podium differs from the palace intrigue scandal playing out inside the White House.
According to the publication, White House staffers have lawyered up, and are worried about what Manafort or Gates may tell Mueller, especially since Gates is a 45-year-old man with a young family, and potentially enjoys not as much wealth as Manafort.
[Featured Image by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Images]
