New bombshell revives debate on Trump fitness

Donald Trump faced a new challenge to his authority Friday after US media reported that his deputy attorney general had discussed ways to force him from office on grounds of incompetence, just months into his presidency.

In the latest bombshell to rock the troubled administration, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that Rod Rosenstein in May 2017 had suggested secretly recording Trump for evidence of White House dysfunction -- and using that to formally remove him from power.

Coming on the heels of an explosive book by respected White House chronicler Bob Woodward, the reports added to mounting evidence indicating that numerous people in Trump’s own government have serious doubts about his fitness for office -- and have actively worked to undermine him.

As the number two Justice Department official, Rosenstein oversees the probe into whether Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Russians in defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Time and Post reports were both based on secret memos by a former FBI director -- which some speculated may have been leaked in order to undermine Rosenstein and in turn the Russia special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Rosenstein branded the reports “inaccurate and factually incorrect.” “I never pursued or authorized recording the president and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the president is absolutely false,” he added. And the Justice Department released a statement by a former senior official -- who would not be identified -- saying that he was “in the room” at the time and that Rosenstein was only joking.

“The statement was sarcastic and was never discussed with any intention of recording a conversation with the president,” said the former official. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr held up the reports as evidence of disloyalty among the president’s entourage.