\u201cHe doesn\u2019 t realize the implications of what he was doing or what he was saying or how it could be interpreted.\u201d<\/b>
\n\u201cLet\u2019s say, hypothetically, something like this was said, \u201d former Trump aide Sam Nunberg told me. \u201cIn the context I know the president, he doesn\u2019 t realize the implications of what he was doing or what he was saying or how it could be interpreted.\u201d
Nunberg was discussing the news that Donald Trump had possibly obstructed justice by asking FBI Director James Comey to stop his investigation into his national security adviser, Michael Flynn \u2014 just one of the many earth-shattering, axis-turning revelations about the administration to trickle out in the several days since Trump fired Comey.
An adviser to Trump in the years before he became president, Nunberg worked alongside him in his 26th-floor Trump Tower office to plan his hostile takeover of the American political system that few, at the time, thought was serious.
Now, observing the chaotic administration from the outside, he \u2014 like so many longtime Trump confidantes \u2014 sees a president he feels is being let down by his staff and misinterpreted by the world. To hear them tell it, Trump is just being himself, and the standards we\u2019 re holding him to no longer apply to the leader of the free world. And to make matters worse, Trump \u2014 someone comforted by familiar faces and surroundings \u2014 has lost his bearings in Washington.
Nunberg suggested that, if what Comey\u2019s memo says is true, perhaps Trump had just misread their relationship. \u201cI get the impression from the tone of this, from what Comey said in these memos, it sounded like he thought Comey was his friend, \u201d he said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019 t understand why he would think that.\u201d
\u201cI think you can hear his earnestness in the alleged quotations, \u201d another former adviser to the president, who requested anonymity, said. \u201cAnd you can hear in his voice that he\u2019s just being himself. If he did this, and I don\u2019 t know that he did it, but if he did this, I\u2019 m certain it\u2019s just he didn\u2019 t realize it. He wasn\u2019 t thinking like a lawyer, you know? And I think he probably didn\u2019 t realize he was doing anything wrong, if he did.\u201d
The former adviser added, \u201cDonald Trump is very personable when you speak to him, especially when you\u2019 re new to his circle. And I think he goes out of his way to make light of things in a way to try to get comfortable with the person he\u2019s speaking with, and this sounds like lighthearted banter.\u201d
Meanwhile Roger Stone, the OG Trump intimate and subject of the highly entertaining new Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone, told me he thought the notes Comey reportedly kept on his meetings with Trump were a farce.
\u201cI just don\u2019 t believe Comey. I think it\u2019s an obvious revenge play, classic Washington bureaucratic bullshit, the after-the-fact memo \u2014 classic, \u201d he said. On Infowars earlier this week, Stone suggested to host Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist, that Comey could\u2019 ve written his notes the day the New York Times story came out.
Stone did acknowledge that Trump is loyal to Flynn, however. \u201cI think he likes Flynn. I think he thinks Flynn is getting a raw deal, \u201d he said. He added that he doesn\u2019 t believe Flynn did anything legally improper.
All old-school Trump aides share one opinion: that Trump is being screwed over by those surrounding him. Like any sidelined operatives, they believe they could do better.
\u201cI don\u2019 t think he realizes the implications of what he does sometimes and he\u2019s gonna have to be more careful and prudent, \u201d Nunberg said. \u201cHe\u2019s giving his enemies openings, everybody is out to get him. These are not his friends, these people.\u201d
For Trump to survive, Stone said he would have to \u201cclean house and get some better people around him who could give him better advice.\u201d He specifically believes Trump needs to do away with Reince Priebus, and \u201canyone who worked for George W. Bush\u201d and \u201canyone who worked for the Republican National Committee.\u201d
Nunberg was more circumspect. \u201cI feel that the guy\u2019s under attack here, and I feel that the White House \u2014 Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne [Conway] , Sean Spicer \u2014 all have his best interest, they\u2019 re all out to protect him, they\u2019 re out to serve him well. But they\u2019 re gonna need an older Washington hand in there sometime soon.\u201d
\u201cHe\u2019s being very poorly served, \u201d the former adviser added. \u201cThe president now feels that he can\u2019 t trust anyone around him. And there is a focused effort to keep original Trump people from joining the White House. He\u2019s surrounded by people he doesn\u2019 t know, under attack from all sides. You look for a familiar face, and there aren\u2019 t any.\u201d
The adviser said a frequent question Trump used to ask those around him was, \u201cWho do I believe?\u201d The adviser said, \u201cOftentimes, when there\u2019s a firestorm around Donald Trump, one of the reasons he survives it is because people circle the wagons. Right now it feels like they\u2019 re a little overcome by the tenor of the attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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