Coats and Rogers refused to comply, The Washington Post’s Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima reported Monday, believing the president’s request to be inappropriate. They were right, of course. While no hard evidence of collusion has been made public, as an investigation now headed by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III continues, a declaration by Coats or Rogers that no evidence exists would be premature and would project a false sense of conclusion in Trump’s favor.

Trump’s request might have been out of bounds, but it was not out of the blue. Asking others to do his dirty work has been the president’s M.O. since his first full day in office.

AD

AD

The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty and Juliet Eilperin reported in January that on the morning after Inauguration Day, Trump personally asked the acting director of the National Park Service to produce photos that would make Trump’s inaugural crowd appear as large as possible and combat the media’s (accurate) reporting that attendance had been smaller than it was for Barack Obama's swearing in, in 2009.

When the New York Times and CNN reported in February that members of Trump’s campaign team had been in regular contact with Russian intelligence officials throughout the election, the White House asked the FBI and several lawmakers to push back on the stories. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairmen of the Senate and House intelligence committees, agreed but the FBI declined.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer acknowledged the request in a Feb. 27 press briefing, saying that the FBI “came to the conclusion that they did not want to get in the process of knocking down every story that they had issues with.”

AD

AD

Earlier this month, Trump enlisted Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to compose a memo that was later used to justify the firing of James B. Comey as FBI director. Multiple White House spokespeople told the media that Trump acted on Rosenstein’s recommendation; Then Trump admitted in an interview with NBC News that he “was going to fire Comey regardless of recommendation.” Rosenstein also told senators last week that he knew Trump’s decision had been made in advance.

Rosenstein might not have known that the White House would frame his memo as the catalyst for Comey’s termination, however. The Post reported that Rosenstein threatened to quit over the way his letter was presented to journalists, though he later denied that he contemplated resignation.

It all adds up to a pattern that is consistent with Trump’s fixation on loyalty. He wants and expects the people around him to defend him at every turn, even when it means misleading reporters and the public.