Trump demands Americans thank him for obstructing justice

Instead of preparing for his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Thursday, Trump was obsessively tweeting about his favorite subject: himself.

In the midst of a series of tweets about the “Witch Hunt,” the “Special Councel [sic]” (which he later deleted and corrected) investigation, and a sad cheap shot at retiring Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, the rage-tweeter in chief demanded thanks for firing FBI Director James Comey.

Over the last several months, Trump has increasingly insisted that firing Comey, FBI director investigating his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia, was somehow a gift to the country.

Now the obstructor in the Oval Office insists Americans should actually be thanking him for doing it.

It’s utterly ridiculous, of course. Within days of the firing, Trump himself went on TV and made clear he sacked Comey because of the Russia investigation and Comey’s refusal to end it.

NBC’s Lester Holt specifically asked about the decision to fire Comey and whether it was based on the recommendations of his Justice Department.

“Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump said. And then he admitted — right on TV, for the whole world to see — that the firing was about Russia.

“And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.'”

More than a year later, Trump is now trying to walk back that admission.

“Not that it matters,” he angrily tweeted last month as part of yet another of his unhinged rants, “but I never fired James Comey because of Russia! The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!”

The narrative about how and why Trump fired his FBI director was created by Trump himself and has been reinforced over and over and over again with Trump’s obsessive rants about Comey and the supposed “witch hunt” and Russia “hoax.”

Trump’s decision to fire Comey had nothing to do with the good of the country. It was a blatant abuse of power to obstruct the investigation into his campaign, his closest advisers, his children, and his wretched presidency. No one owes him a thank you for that.