The last month has seen a flurry of manic activity within the West Wing, as Donald Trump has thrown off the shackles of his aides and advisers, fired his secretary of state, and precipitated what could become a global trade war. Friends of the president say his recent decisions are “the manifestation of growing confidence,” but many fear that “full Trump” will prove wildly self-destructive, particularly as he exercises the same rash decision-making when it comes to his own legal defense in the Russia investigation.

On Monday, Trump continued throwing caution to the wind, tapping combative former U.S. attorney Joe diGenova to join his legal team. The addition of diGenova—a longtime Clinton antagonist who recently argued on Fox News that the president is the victim of a deep-state conspiracy—suggests that Trump is looking to take a more aggressive stance against Robert Mueller. According to The Washington Post, many of Trump’s advisers were not consulted on the addition of diGenova. Trump is reportedly not discussing Russia legal decisions with advisers such as Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House general counsel Don McGahn. Privately, the president has expressed frustration with his legal team, and has been relying on the counsel of friends outside the West Wing, and allies on TV, as he ramps up his fight with the Justice Department.

The shake-up comes at an especially precarious time. Though Trump’s top lawyers have long been divided over how to best address Mueller’s inquiry—Ty Cobb has urged cooperation with the special counsel’s office, while McGahn and John Dowd have argued for a more aggressive stance—sources familiar with the team’s inner workings told The New York Times on Monday that Dowd has weighed leaving the team “because he has concluded that he has no control over the behavior of the president.” Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly considered dismissing Cobb, but reassured the attorney on Monday that “he had no plans to fire him . . . in part to prevent a narrative that his team was in disarray after The New York Times began making inquiries.” His choice to add diGenova is expected to widen the rift. (Dowd denied that he has contemplated quitting, and Cobb has told individuals that the president has implored him to stay on the team.)

Those fault lines became even more apparent over the weekend, when Trump lashed out at the F.B.I. Dowd followed up by calling for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to shut down the Mueller inquiry, reportedly blindsiding other members of the legal team. He later walked back his statement, saying that he was not speaking on behalf of the president. But the damage was done. “You have a lawyer issuing a statement apparently on behalf of his client, then amending that to say, no, he was speaking only for himself, although it was on the very matters about which he was advising his client on,” Robert Bauer, who served as White House counsel under President Barack Obama, told the Post. “That is certainly an unconventional way of mounting a legal defense.”

Trump’s reshuffle comes as Mueller looms ever nearer; according to the Post, the president’s lawyers have turned over a series of “written descriptions that chronicle key moments under investigation” to Mueller’s team, in the hopes of restricting a potential interview with the president to a “few select topics.” Behind the scenes, they’re reportedly moving into “crunchtime,” strategizing around what questions Mueller could ask, and how Trump should respond. In past legal disputes, Trump’s natural instinct has been to double down and fight back. With a new, conspiracy-minded lawyer at his side and Republican allies largely silent, the president appears to be in position to go for broke with a more aggressive response.