In July 2017 New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt asked Donald Trump a leading question about whether an investigation of his personal finances by special counsel Robert Mueller would constitute a “red line.”

SCHMIDT: Last thing, if Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line? HABERMAN: Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is? TRUMP: I would say yeah. I would say yes.

Presumably, someone who crosses a red line should be punished in some way, such as by being fired. Monday, when Trump was expressing displeasure about the Mueller-connected raid on his personal attorney Michael Cohen’s office, a Fox News Radio reporter named Jon Decker brought that very idea up to Trump in a casual way, like, hey, what if you just fired this son of a bitch?

DECKER: Why don’t you just fire Mueller? TRUMP: Why don’t I just fire Mueller? DECKER: Yeah, just fire the guy.

For her part Haberman noted that her sources believed Mueller had, in fact, crossed the vaunted Line.

But both Trump and Cohen believe this is really Mueller and that farming it out to SDNY was a fig leaf. Both sources say that this has crossed the "red line" that Trump laid out for Mueller going outside his purview in intvw w @nytmike @peterbakernyt and me last July — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 10, 2018

Today CNN’s Jim Acosta tracked down Trump somewhere in the White House and pestered him further about firing some other people, namely attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy A.G. Rod “Hot Rod” Rosenstein.

Just asked Trump whether he plans to fire Sessions, Rosenstein and whether he has spoken with Cohen. No response. — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 10, 2018

There was no response because you were shouting questions at a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump in your dingy one-room apartment, Jim! Get a grip! Do your laundry!

Guess what came up at press secretary Sarah Sanders’ afternoon news briefing?

Q: Does Trump believe he has the power to fire Robert Mueller as special counsel?



.@PressSec: “He certainly believes he has the power to do so.” — Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) April 10, 2018

A different reporter asked whether “the president has had any conversation about firing Jeff Sessions or Robert Mueller in the past 24 hours,” and a third asked whether Sessions “risk[s] being fired right now.”

Mr. Trump, Ben Mathis-Lilley from Slate here. How could you let Mueller and his henchmen humiliate you and your family in this way? And are you going to do anything about it, or are you scared, like a chicken?

Jokes about a haggard, wild-eyed Jim Acosta aside, Donald Trump reportedly tried to fire Robert Mueller as early as last June (at about the same time, incidentally, that he said he would “100 percent” be willing to testify in Mueller’s investigation). He is going to think a lot in the coming days about firing Robert Mueller with or without reporters asking him about it. Still, it is a little embarrassing that this single question—which is pointless to ask, given how little relation Trump’s responses to hypotheticals have to his future actions—has become this much of an an obsession of the press, especially when reporters could have used their face time with the president/his spokeswoman today and yesterday to inquire about such Cohen-adjacent issues as why Stormy Daniels should be expected to abide by a contract with Trump that he didn’t sign and claims not to have known about, whether Cohen colluded improperly with Karen McDougal’s attorney, why the alleged “conflict of interest” that taints Democratic prosecutors working for Mueller isn’t mitigated by the reality that the investigation is supervised entirely by Republicans Trump appointed himself, and more.

In summary, when it comes to questions about firing Robert Mueller, I say, “You’re fired!” (Like on The Apprentice.)