Most of the commentators are asking “why now?”, why fire Comey now when it is so inopportune politically, so distracting and unhelpful to Trump. But this is far too sophisticated a question. While it may be true that Trump had this notion in his immediate wheelhouse for some time, he did this now because it rose to his occasion. It is as if it suddenly occurred to him that _now_ this_ is what he wants. He acts from the need for immediate gratification. Comey’s been a problem for awhile, for many reasons, but why now? Because it exploded into his mind and that was enough. There was no further calculation.
The more evidence we obtain, the more apparent it becomes that Trump has no capacity to calculate and has never needed or created a plan that isn’t entirely based on impulse and pre-thought. There is no strategy and obviously there are no principles but the simplest, crass outbursts that serve the moment. At his base there is nothing particularly sophisticated or nuanced. So I think this too was pure impulse, an idea that may have a history in his head, working like a slow-cooker but then he simply acts. Perhaps some someones also got in his ear recently —Roger Stone far more calculating, so worried about Russia investigations—but it wasn’t a conspiracy so much as it was Trump come to a boil. He trusts and likes only those who confirm his feelings and that very small sphere of his criminal family enterprise. He lets people in, like Flynn, and won’t disavow them even when he’s got to fire them— it’s just business. Everything is true only _for now_.
So the idea that Trump fires Comey because his Russia investigation was getting too close gives Trump too much credit. This is a hollow, callow, deeply lonely, pathologically paranoid, narcissist who can’t help himself. Comey crept up on Trump, it finally exploded —and no one needed to be told or consulted, most were left out.
There is another way in which Trump decides: it is when he is on the spot, when he feels cornered. When he _has_ to deal. And in those situations, he does the very same thing. He reaches for what is nearest, the closest thing he has got to get to the next moment. Voila.
The decision _like all Trump decisions_ reveals a consistent pattern: this is a man who has only the most rudimentary intellectual grasp of any complex situation who relies entirely on unmediated feelings. He is hasty, abrupt, impetuous, and utterly indifferent to how others will react or think. He has never had to care because, well, he’s got the money and has a made a life out of appealing to his most base intuitive impulses without the slightest need to comprehend or calculate more than the most rudimentary facts. For details he’s got others to do his work. He watches TV. He knew he could fire Comey, and when it felt like the moment, he did. He is run by his feelings. He doesn’t so much _have_ feelings as these feelings _have him_.
The only interesting fact left is whether Rothstein was set up to write this letter because Trump wanted an excuse or whether Rothstein, having come into the job, just had it out for Comey for his own reasons. Rothstein may have been the one who wanted Comey fired and made sure the ear worm got into the worm’s ear. We’ll find out. Trump will simply respond to every situation as it unfolds—this is governance by pure unskilled improvisation, much like the naive, thoughtlessness of his constituents. If it feels right, do it. From this base thoughtlessness he says and does whatever emerges into mind _at the moment_ that will serve his immediate interests. There is no plan, no future, no calculation: there is just what works for him, _his_ interests _now_. Oh, and there is no country, no republic, no principle or value that even comes to mind.