Trump's week

It has been a helluva week for Trump. Not many pluses for him, apart from the new trade deal with China under which the Chinese banks are allowed to march into the US investment market and Chinese chicken farmers are allowed to sell chickens in the US in return for a lifting of the ban on American beef imports. But all the focus has been, of course, on Comey. Not just his sacking and all the rumpus that caused but what may or may not have been exchanged between Comey and Trump at a private dinner in the White House some time ago. All very intriguing. Did Trump demand Comey's personal loyalty (read allegiance) to the Great Man in return for keeping his job, did Comey say, "no way buddie but I promise always to be honest," (unlike you Mr President - Comey's thought bubble). And did either Comey or Trump record the conversation? Easy for both men. Trump just had to get his super security ex-police detective bodyguard to set him up with a bug under the table or under his lapel, and Comey could have gone to his wiretap blokes and said: "Fix me up with a wire." Comey, according to friends close to him (ie Comey) said the ex-FBI director was more than happy if Trump had a recording of The Conversation, implying he had a record of exactly what had been said over dinner Which must be why Trump issued the thinly veiled (actually not veiled at all) threat to Comey via Twitter not to even think of releasing a transcript of the chat to the media. Sean Spicer said it wasn't a threat, just a statement of the facts. A bit like when Don Corleone might have said to an underling: "You let anyone know what we have just talked about and I'll invite you to my house and you can sleep with my fishes. Capeesh?" Comey certainly got the message because he decided to turn down the invitation to speak to the Senate intelligence committee next Tuesday. He knew that the first question would have been: "So Mr former director, what DID the president say to you at that dinner?" One day, sometime soon, not too much in the distant future, that conversation will be published. But who will leak it, and if it is leaked, will it be the true conversation? I'm not generally a conspiracy theorists but this is all wonderful stuff. And we're only 113 days into the Trump presidency. There is a whole lot more to come. Next week I expect Trump will rearrange his press spokesmen/women. Spicer might be for the chop. Probably deserved but actually while all the fun was going on this week, he was whisked away to serve time in the Navy Reserve. So for most of the week he was playing sailorboy, leaving his female deputy to shoulder the burden of explaining away wildly changing explanations for Comey's sacking. She sounded almost as unconvincing and unconvinced as Spicer.