NOT THINKING

Report: Trump Made Up His Mind About Memo Before Ever Reading It

President “was not going to be persuaded [otherwise]. He wanted it out.”

President Trump only became interested in the controversial GOP memo after House Republicans told him about it, and wanted it released before he even read it, The Washington Post reported Friday. After a Jan. 18 call with House GOP members, the president began to watch cable-TV segments about it and discuss it with friends. “There was never any hesitation,” one adviser told the Post. “The president was resolved on this. He was not going to be persuaded [otherwise]. He wanted it out.” Despite Chief of Staff John Kelly expressing that “the document was not as compelling as some of its advocates had promised Trump,” many aides in the West Wing knew that convincing Trump otherwise would be a “fruitless endeavor” because he wanted to build “a public argument against [Deputy Attorney General] Rosenstein’s handling of the case.”