It seems almost futile to point it out these days, but there used to be "norms" around presidential behavior. For instance, it was expected that the president wouldn't spend the lion's share of his time watching television, dumping infotainment sludge into his skull rather than reading intelligence briefings. Also, it used to be a genuine scandal for the president to comment on any ongoing Justice Department investigation, because while the department is part of the Executive Branch the president oversees, it is meant to be entirely independent of political considerations in order to maintain the rule of laws, not men.

Obviously, that's one of many norms that have been curbstomped by Donald Trump, American president. The White House's current occupant does not just continually comment on ongoing investigations and prosecutions; he continually rails against investigations into himself and his associates in public. He attacks senior officials running the Justice Department and the Russia probe, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But the latest instance of this, which arrived via The Tweet Machine Friday morning, almost defied belief:

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“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr...... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

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....FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems - and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

First of all, this one violates another Presidential Norm: that the nation's chief executive will not unleash an avalanche of randomly capitalized sentence fragments detailing various unhinged, barely scrutable conspiracy theories and Fox News synthetic scandals.

But then there's the fact that he quotes Sessions' statement Thursday pushing back on Trump's public interference in the Justice Department: "Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." Again, he doesn't quite nail the grammar. But then he immediately launches into...an attempt to politically influence the Justice Department.

The Washington Post Getty Images

Does the president think that when he demands an investigation into his political opponent—something he promised from the presidential debate stage, too—it's not a form of political influence? Does he just not care? Or does he know his supporters won't care, and will just latch onto this murderer's row of conspiratorial nonsense and be distracted, for another day, from the corruption and scandal engulfing his presidency?

Beyond that, another bizarre element was his addressing the Attorney General of the United States as "Jeff." That was a theme for the morning:

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Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over “classified” information. Gee, this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018

(Here he's referencing the sentencing of Reality Winner, an NSA contractor who leaked a top-secret government report to journalists. Winner received five years in prison, "the longest ever imposed in federal court for an unauthorized release of government information to the media," according to the New York Times. Many have suggested the sentence was unduly harsh, though it's unclear whether the president agrees or he merely thinks it's unfair Hillary Clinton has not also been jailed. Regardless, it's worth pointing out the report Winner leaked was an investigation into Russian attempts to hack local election officials and voter registration databases during the 2016 campaign. The president has repeatedly denied Russian interference, then admitted they interfered, then returned to denials.)

SAUL LOEB Getty Images

Maybe the wackiest part of this First Name Feud is that Donald and Jeff had a meeting Thursday, not long after Trump trashed Sessions on Fox & Friends and the attorney general fired back with a precisely worded statement. Axios reports that they "didn't say a word about their confrontation."

Per a second source with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, attended by Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Sessions, Trump and Mercedes Schlapp: “No acknowledgment, not even a passing mention” of the morning’s events. “To the point where I don’t even know if he [Trump] was aware of his [Sessions’] statement."

But you know Trump was aware. This is just the latest example of his well-documented aversion to in-person confrontation. Yes, the "You're Fired!" Guy is afraid to face up to people. Instead, he has resorted to cyberbullying his attorney general. Presumably he missed the memo on the First Lady's "Be Best" initiative. All this is just another dimension of the almighty scam the American republic bought into in 2016. Unfortunately, the growing scam now threatens to engulf the idea you can't crowbar your way out of legal trouble using the powers of your office.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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