FACT: It’s January 5, 2018.
All of these things have happened in politics so far this year:
1. President Trump questioned his own Justice Department and seemed to endorse the idea of the so-called “deep state.”
2. Trump claimed credit for the lack of deaths on US commercial airlines in 2017. (There hasn’t been a death on a commercial US airliner since 2009).
3. Trump tweeted that he has a “bigger” and “more powerful” nuclear button than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
4. Journalist Michael Wolff’s behind-the-scenes look at the first year of the Trump White House began to leak out — portraying Trump and those close to him as out of their depth in every way.
5. Trump released a scathing statement — following the release of quotes by Steve Bannon to Wolff — blasting his former chief strategist as insane (and also less involved in Trump’s success than people believe).
6. Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican member of the world’s greatest deliberative body, announced he was retiring — despite pleas from Trump to run again. Mitt Romney is likely to run.
7. It’s confirmed that the FBI is investigating the Clinton Foundation.
8. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tells CNN’s Elise Labott that he is planning to stay on in his job for the entire year.
9. Ohio state Treasurer Josh Mandel abruptly drops his 2018 challenge to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), leaving Republicans without a serious candidate one month before the state’s filing deadline.
10. Questions swirl — largely stoked by Wolff’s book — about a) whether Trump is mentally fit for the presidency and b) if Trump is in the midst of some sort of mental deterioration.Â
Let me end where I started: It’s January 5. Buckle up.
Read Friday’s full edition of The Point.
