Back in the bad old Obama days, I was staying in a hotel in New York one time, and a young man got on the elevator with me. He was clearly a hard-charging Wall Street type, and he did not look happy. Before the door slid closed, I saw on the TV in the lobby bar that the president was speaking.

The Wall Street type said words to this effect: “Every time that guy Obama opens his mouth, the market drops. I’m not against the man. I like him. I voted for him. But he’s just depressing – and he has to tell everyone all his deep thoughts all the time.” He then pretended to address the president, muttering, “I get it. You’re a smart guy. Now shut up.”

His monologue came back to me this week when the current president tweeted about Roger Stone.

Stone is another one of these shabby fixer types Trump hangs out with, blokes like Roy Cohn and Michael Cohen and David Pecker of the National Enquirer, make-believe tough guys who’ll “take a bullet for you,” until the coppers get them in a room alone, then they spill their guts.

Stone got hard done by, no doubt about it. He was caught unfairly by Robert Mueller in one of those process crimes leading out of the Russian collusion investigation. In other words, he committed crimes that wouldn’t have existed if that phony case hadn’t been ginned up in the first place.

After Stone was convicted on eleventy-hundred counts of lying to congress and witness tampering, Department of Justice prosecutors recommended he be sent away for seven to nine years. That’s more than you get for killing and eating your mother the first time out. But the prosecutors cited what’s called “enhancement,” because Stone threatened a witness with violence, although even the witness didn’t take him seriously, that’s just the stupid way Stone talks.

Trump tweeted that the recommendation should be reduced. Attorney General William Barr then reduced the recommendation. Barr said he was going to do that anyway and I believe him. Barr is the last totally incorruptible man in D.C. – you can tell by the way the press demonizes him. But it looked bad all the same. The original four prosecutors protested. One quit the DOJ, three others quit the case.

The Wile E. Coyote Democrats are getting out their Acme Impeachment Kits over this with the likewise Wile E. Coyote media cheering them on. This delights me because I find corruption and stupidity hilarious. And yes, whatever the cockles of my heart are, they are warmed by the memory of how scandal-free Obama’s scandal free and utterly corrupt DOJ covered up the Fast and Furious scandal and scuttled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal servers. But warm cockles notwithstanding, that’s beside the point.

The point is that Barr himself is annoyed with Trump’s tweets. They make him look dishonest when he’s not and make it, he says, “impossible” for him to do his job.

And, of course, that’s true. Barr has all the enemies an honest man should have, and Trump just makes their job easier by making it seem like the White House is interfering with justice.

The tragic bind of Donald Trump is this. He would not have been elected if he weren’t the loud-mouthed pugilist he is, but his loud-mouthed pugilism sometimes works against him. Our news media is so corrupt and has so demonized those who support the founding principles of our country that only an iron-skinned belligerent like the president could have withstood their onslaughts and exposed them as they deserve. But his pugnacity is off-putting to a lot of voters he’ll need in November. And also, it’s not the right approach to every situation. Sometimes the right answer is shut up.

So it was in this case. Bill Barr is one of the greatest assets the administration has. He can be counted on to do the right thing come hell or high water. So what does the president gain, what do any of us gain by having Trump tweet backseat directions at him before he acts? Even Roger Stone himself may suffer, if the judge who does the sentencing takes Trump’s tweets amiss.

I know. The comment section to this column will likely be full of frog-iconed mini-Trumps declaring me a cuck and telling me how sick and tired they are of being sick and tired. But I’m not against the man. I like him. I voted for him.

I get it. You’re a tough guy. Now shut up.