Would firing Rosenstein really change anything?

The fate of the deputy attorney general is ultimately irrelevant to the Trump presidency

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images, alexxx1981/iStock)

Unless the person getting the boot is the star of Piranha 3DD and the position from which he is being removed is a fictitious one, President Trump prefers not to fire people in person. Trump was in New York on Monday for a meeting of the United Nations, which is one reason why reports that Rod Rosenstein had resigned or been fired after he was called to a meeting at the White House with John Kelly, the president's chief of staff, were widely believed.

At present it's impossible to say whether the deputy attorney general will have a job after he sees Trump in person on Thursday. There remains a distinct possibility that a chastened Rosenstein, disavowing all talk of wiretapping and the 25th Amendment and kowtowing before a president who demands a swift resolution of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, will remain in his position, especially if Trump feels at liberty to berate him on Twitter and in speeches.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.