Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) You would think -- or at least hope -- that the person who serves as President of the United States would be supportive of anyone who cooperates with federal authorities to bring criminals to justice. After all, Article II of the US Constitution expressly charges the President with enforcing our laws: "he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."

But not, apparently, Donald Trump. We saw this with his tweet on Sunday morning, in response to a New York Times article about White House counsel Don McGahn, who was interviewed several times by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team.

He wrote , "The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type 'RAT.' But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn't have to..."

"A John Dean type 'RAT'"?! Nowhere in the Times article did the reporters or any of the sources they interviewed mention the word "rat." All the article said was that McGahn was cooperating with the special counsel -- and with Trump's permission. And according to sources close to McGahn, the Times wrote, McGahn was hoping to avoid a fate similar to Richard Nixon's White House counsel at the time of Watergate: John Dean.

So why would Trump reach for such an ominous term to characterize the way (in his view) the Times piece described McGahn's motivation? Whatever Trump's reasons, it's striking how effectively the word "rat" telegraphs the choices available to someone, like McGahn, who cooperates with the special counsel -- even with the President's assent, as he points out.

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