Story highlights Even by Trumpian standards, the wild swings, erratic messaging and general chaos was beyond the pale

The President himself debunked the White House's explanations for why he fired Comey

Trump also sent out tweets that threatened Comey and raised the specter that he might be taping conversations

(CNN) Donald Trump's week started with Sally Yates' damning testimony about Michael Flynn and ended with a series of wild tweets and an ever-changing story about exactly why he chose to fire FBI Director James Comey.

Even by Trumpian standards, the wild swings, erratic messaging and general chaos was beyond the pale -- raising real concerns about whether Trump was losing control of the ship of state.

Start with the testimony of Yates , the one-time acting attorney general, to a Senate subcommittee Monday. She made clear that on two occasions -- once on January 26 and then again on January 27 -- she sought out White House counsel Don McGahn to warn him that national security adviser Michael Flynn had been compromised by the Russians and was a blackmail risk. Trump didn't fire Flynn until 18 days later -- a seemingly inexplicable amount of time given the allegations against him.

On Tuesday -- even as Trump's White House was trying to find an explanation for that 18-day gap -- Trump stunned the political world by firing Comey. He did so by having his former bodyguard deliver a hand-written letter -- in which Trump asserted that Comey had told him on three occasions that he wasn't under investigation(!) -- to the FBI. Comey was in Los Angeles at the time, finding out of his firing the way the rest of us did: on TV.

Trump's White House was entirely unprepared for the firestorm that erupted -- likely because they, like the rest of us, had no idea it was coming. The initial spin offered by the White House, from Vice President Mike Pence on down, was that Trump had acted "decisively" after reading a memo from deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that hammered Comey for his conduct in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.

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