White House puts Mueller on notice after raids The president and his aides escalated their threats on the special Russia counsel after federal investigators raided the home and office of longtime associate Michael Cohen.

The Trump White House punched back at its own Justice Department on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump and senior officials expressing outrage over law enforcement raids on lawyer Michael Cohen — and making thinly veiled threats to fire Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

“We’ve been advised the president certainly has the power to make that decision,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said when asked whether Trump could fire Mueller, who answers not to the White House but to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.


Trump began the day tweeting in defense of Cohen, a longtime Trump Organization associate. “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. He added: “Attorney-client privilege is dead!”

A GOP operative close to the White House told POLITICO: “The all-caps tweet, that’s the primal scream. That’s the war cry.”

“He’s losing his shit,” the operative added. “We’re at a different level now.”

Amid the furor, the White House announced earlier Tuesday that Trump would skip an upcoming trip to Latin America and instead stay in Washington. Trump’s decision to scrap this weekend’s long-planned travel to the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, will leave the president largely alone in the White House with little on his schedule, giving him time to stew and watch cable news.

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Angry and increasingly isolated, the president is more unpredictable than ever, according to four people close to him.

These people worry that Trump — who has lost several key advisers in recent months, including former staff secretary Rob Porter, personal aide Johnny McEntee and communications director Hope Hicks — may make a snap decision to fire senior Justice Department officials who he blames for Monday’s raids on the office and apartment of Cohen, his personal lawyer.

While the president has long complained — both publicly and privately — about the investigation overseen by Mueller, his rage has surged since Mueller’s recent decision to subpoena the Trump Organization. Monday’s raids further cemented the president’s belief that Mueller and others in the Justice Department are out to get him.

Trump is especially frustrated with Rosenstein, according to a person familiar with the president’s conversations. Rosenstein, a former U.S. attorney, has overseen the Mueller probe since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last year.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Rosenstein personally signed off on the Cohen raids. Rosenstein also played a key role in Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, whose memoir — widely expected to be critical of Trump — is due to be released on April 17.

Given Trump’s ongoing frustration with the Mueller investigation, one former campaign official predicted that both Rosenstein and Mueller would be fired by the end of the week.

The telltale sign came in the form of Trump’s body language on Monday night, said the same official; his arms crossed and his punchy rhetoric meant, to those who’ve worked with him closely, that Trump was not happy and no amount of information could change his mind.

In recent weeks, the president has increasingly leaned on Fox News personalities for advice, regularly calling Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Fox Business Network anchor Lou Dobbs.

Dobbs used his Monday night show to call for Mueller’s firing, saying, “I would fire the SOB in three seconds if it were me.” One of the people close to Trump said he was afraid comments like Dobbs’ could further encourage the president to remove the special counsel, a move that many Republicans believe would be disastrous for his presidency.

But two other people close to the White House wrote off Trump’s comments as his usual bluster and said they weren’t aware of any concrete plans to oust senior Justice Department officials.

“I would be very, very surprised if you saw any type of DOJ or Mueller shakeup at the direction of the president,” said one Republican close to the White House. “I think the president has a sense that it would be very difficult to do it and to follow up with other appointments that would get Senate attention.”

Lawmakers mounted a renewed defense of Mueller on Tuesday, with one Republican senator pushing to pass legislation that would shield the special prosecutor from White House interference.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is pressing the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up his legislation aimed at insulating Mueller from any attempt to fire him. Tillis is in discussions with Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about merging two separate Mueller protection bills and then persuading Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to pass the legislation.

“It’s a good bill that’s going to have enduring value beyond this presidency,” Tillis said.

West Wing staff had welcomed Trump’s trip to Latin America, which was supposed to include a stop in Bogota, Colombia, and a return to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, taking him out of the country as Comey embarks on a media blitz surrounding his book.

It’s not clear whether Trump will remain in Washington next week or keep plans to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago, a replay of a golf weekend the pair enjoyed early in Trump’s presidency.

Trump hates leaving the White House for extended periods of time, unless it’s to visit one of his properties, and has long been reluctant to embark on lengthy foreign trips, according to a person close to the president.

“He’s a homebody,” the person said.

Vice President Mike Pence will take Trump’s place at the meetings in Peru, while the president will “monitor developments around the world,” Sanders said in a statement.

Trump spent Tuesday receiving updates on the situation in Syria in the aftermath of a suspected chemical attack last weekend, including from his new national security adviser John Bolton, according to one White House official.

The president said Monday that the United States had “a lot of options militarily” to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria over the weekend. He said his administration would decide how to react in the next “24 to 48 hours.” No response has yet been announced.

The suspected poison gas attack on Saturday in the suburbs of Damascus killed dozens of people. After a similar chemical attack a year ago, Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base. Before the weekend attack, however, he had said he wanted “to get out” of the civil-war-ravaged country.

Pence visited Latin America last year to meet with the presidents of Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Panama in an attempt to increase pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

“The Vice President is honored to represent the United States at the 8th Summit of the Americas at President Trump’s request,” Jarrod Agen, Pence’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement. “He looks forward to promoting policy that will lead to an even stronger U.S. economy and working with our close allies in Latin America to collectively hold undemocratic actors in the region accountable for their actions.”

Lorraine Woellert and Quint Forgey contributed to this report.

