Mar 16, 2018 4 min read

It’s just now sinking in that based on the rate of firings, I’ll eventually have to serve in the Trump administration – comedian George Wallace on Twitter

The Trump administration, in its first 14 months, has been a fairly constant source of “Did that really happen?” moments, but a new record might have been set Tuesday.

While most folks in this area were transfixed by the race to fill the open seat in the 18th Congressional District, eye-popping events surrounding the president and his staff were happening at a startling rate Tuesday.

A sampling:

• The biggest news of the day was President Trump’s decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has butted heads on more than one occasion with the president, whom he once called a “moron” at a Pentagon meeting. How did Tillerson find out he was being replaced? In a professional setting, he would have been called in for a face-to-face meeting with the president, or at the very least, a phone call would have been made. But not at the Trump White House. Tillerson, of course, found out that we was gone from the State Department when Trump tweeted early Tuesday that he was nominating CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his new secretary of state. If that seems totally classless and unprofessional, it’s because it was.
• In Part II of the State Department “festivities,” according to an ABC News report, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steven Goldstein released a statement refuting the White House’s story on how Tillerson was canned. It wasn’t long before Goldstein was shown the door, as well. ABC noted that after the Tuesday house-cleaning at State, nearly all of the top posts in the department are vacant.

Said the ABC report, “Among the six undersecretary roles, four have been vacant, a fifth now is open with Goldstein’s firing, and the sixth is filled by care 1972 er diplomat Tom Shannon, who announced last month he is retiring. … More than a dozen assistant secretary roles remain vacant or filled by senior diplomats in an acting capacity, and overseas, more than three dozen ambassadorships are empty.”

Tillerson and Goldstein seem to be disembarking from a sinking ship.

• Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with the president, gave Trump attorney Michael Cohen until noon Tuesday to take Daniels up on her offer to return the $130,000 hush settlement she received. They heard nothing, leading Avenatti to tweet, “The president and Mr. Cohen have purposely ignored our settlement offers, thus doubling down on their efforts to muzzle Ms. Clifford (Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Clifford) and prevent her from telling the American people what happened. Time to buckle up.”
• Longtime Trump confidant and personal aide John McEntee reportedly was escorted out of the White House on Monday, and the news broke Tuesday. According to CNN, McEntee was fired because he is “currently under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes.” You might wonder how a guy under that kind of cloud could find another job. Fear not! He was almost immediately hired by the Trump re-election campaign as a senior adviser for campaign operations. As the old saying goes, you can’t make this stuff up.

Many words can and have been used to describe the Trump administration. “Stable” isn’t one of them.