(Image of Trump throwing a temper tantrum is from medium.com.)Trump called Democrats to the White House on Wednesday. It was so they could negotiate an infrastructure bill and passage of his trade agreement with Canada and Mexico (NAFTA Redux). But that didn't happen.
The Democrats showed up with a 35 page plan for infrastructure to be used as a starting point for negotiations, but it soon became obvious that Trump had no interest in negotiating infrastructure -- or anything else.
Trump first kept the legislators waiting for 15 minutes. Then he came into the room and delivered a 3 minute tirade, saying he would not negotiate on any legislation (infrastructure or anything else) until the Democrats agreed to stop the investigations of him.
In other words, he threw a temper tantrum. Why? It seems that he's feeling the heat, and he's scared of what the investigations will reveal to the public.
Trump has tried everything he can to stop the investigation of his wrongdoing. We know (from the Mueller Report) that he tried to obstruct justice at least eight times during Mueller's investigation. We also know that his campaign officials met with Russians hundreds of times during the campaign, And we know that Trump is in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Is that all that Trump's trying to hide? Or is there more -- like laundering dirty money from Russia? Whatever it is, Trump is trying hard to hide it from the American people. He has ordered his government officials, company officials, and banks to not turn over any documents to House investigators. And he has refused to let any past or present White House employees testify before Congress. He thought he could delay the investigation (perhaps until after the 2020 election) by doing that.
But the courts are not cooperating. A couple of courts have already rules that documents must be turned over to the House committees, and it looks like other cases brought by Democrats may also be fast-tracked. In addition, New York state just passed a law to give state tax returns of Trump to the House investigators, and those state returns will tell Congress a lot about his federal returns (which they are based on).
The walls are starting to close in on Trump as he is running out of option to stop or delay the investigation in his malfeasance. That's why he threw his temper tantrum. It was the only option he had left. But it won't work. There are important things that Congress needs to get done in the next few months (pass a budget, raise the debt ceiling, etc.), and Trump will only hurt himself if he doesn't cooperate. It will be a repeat of his attempt to shut the government down (which didn't work out well for him).
Trump needs to learn that this country has a Constitution -- and that Constitution doesn't allow rule by temper tantrum.
