The president is “not obstructing, he’s fighting back.” So said Sarah Huckabee Sanders following a series of tweets (what else) in which Trump called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who has recused himself) to end the special counsel investigation: “This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!” (America is getting stained. But not by Bob Mueller.)

+ “In the black hole of conspiracy in which ‘Q’ has plunged its followers, Trump only feigned collusion to create a pretense for the hiring of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is actually working to expose the Democrats. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros are planning a coup – and traffic children in their spare time. J.P. Morgan, the American financier, sunk the Titanic.” The constant lies and attacks on America’s institutions serve as more than fodder for Fox News or the seeds of outrage for fans of reality. The behavior has open the portal through which some of the worst conspiracy theorists have migrated from internet message boards into the real world. We are Q: Conspiracy cult leaps from the internet to the crowd at Trump’s MAGA tour.

+ GQ: The Cult of Trump Makes the Worst Conspiracy Theories Mainstream.

+ “This is the president whipping up hatred of the media in tweets and public appearances, watching it blossom into a reporter becoming a target of hate at one of his rallies, and then expressing his satisfaction with how his supporters are acting on his messages.”

+ Pew: Trump’s approval ratings so far are unusually stable.