Donald Trump was scheduled to meet with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer this afternoon at the White House to discuss his desire for a robust infrastructure program to rebuild America’s crumbling roads and bridges. According to the Washington Post, however, Trump — arriving 15 minutes late for the meeting — walked in “visibly angry”, accused Pelosi of saying something “terrible”, and then stormed out of the room. And, from there, he apparently kept right on walking to the Rose Garden, where a lectern with the presidential seal had been outfitted with an official-looking placard declaring “no collusion, no obstruction.” [Super presidential, right?] Donald Trump then went on to rant about the Democrats, telling the assembled members of the press that, until the investigations into his administration had been brought to a close, he would not be participating in the legislative process on behalf of the American people… “Get these phony investigations over with,” Trump demanded.

When asked afterward why Donald Trump would go to the trouble of pretending to storm out of a meeting and then have what he claimed to be an impromptu press conference — as if members of the press couldn’t figure out that the production of the above-mentioned placard would take some pre-planning — Chuck Schumer responded by saying that Trump “had to run away” because he hadn’t done the actual work of figuring out how an ambitious infrastructure plan, like the one he said he wanted, would be paid for.

And, now, as I mentioned above, Donald Trump is saying that, until the investigations stop, he will not longer work with Congress to do the work of governing… essentially saying that he’s going on a legislative strike until the Democrats stop attempting to do their constitutionally-mandated job of executive oversight. [Bill Clinton, as you might remember, took a much different approach, saying that he intended to keep working with Republican lawmakers, even as they pursued impeachment, saying that he wouldn’t stop doing the work of the people.]

Here’s footage of Trump demanding that the investigations be brought to an end.

President Trump: "I walked into the room and I told Senator Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, 'I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it…but you know what, you can't do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with.'" pic.twitter.com/VR7oB4GbxM

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 22, 2019

There are any number of things that one could say about the President’s public tantrum today — like the fact that he declared “I don’t do coverups,” when we know for a certainty that he personally arranged for two of his mistresses to be paid-off during the campaign in order to guarantee their silence — but I’d like to spend our remaining time together talking about a few of the “facts” shared on that placard Donald Trump was standing behind today.

THE CLAIM: “$35+ Million spent (on the Mueller investigation)”
THE FACT: The investigation, which ultimately brought indictments against 34 people — including 5 close Trump associates — for about 200 separate criminal charges, actually made money. While the Special Counsel investigation may have cost $35 million, it’s estimated that that assets forfeited by Trump associate Paul Manafort as part of his plea deal totaled between $42 million and $46 million, meaning that there was a net positive to tax-payers of approximately $10 million.

THE CLAIM: “No collusion”
The FACT: While the Mueller report did say that no evidence was found of conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, it did not evaluate — in the words of the Washington Post — “the broader, non-legal concept of ‘collusion.’” So, in other words, the Special Counsel did not find “no collusion.”

THE CLAIM: “No obstruction”
THE FACT: The Mueller report actually laid out ten instances of potential obstruction, and called on Congress to take up the question of whether or not the President should be indicted. [Under Department of Justice guidelines, Mueller was not able to make a prosecutorial determination.]

THE CLAIM: “675 days”
THE FACT: Investigations of this nature take a long time, and there’s nothing unusual about the fact that the Mueller investigation took 675 days. In fact, Ken Starr’s investigation of Clinton lasted 1,693 days, and the Iran-Contra investigation took 2,420 days. And let’s not forget the Republican-produced piece of political theater that was the Benghazi investigation, which ran from May 2014 to December 2016, costing American taxpayers over $7 million, and yielding a total of zero indictments. [And, yes, the House Select Committee on Benghazi cost us, the American tax payers, approximately $17 million more than the Mueller investigation.]

CLAIM: “18 angry democrats”
FACT: Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as well as the Deputy Attorney General who appointed him, Rod Rosenstein, are both registered Republicans. As for whether any of the prosecutors hired by Mueller are registered democrats, I’m sure some are. There is no evidence, however, that this impacted their work at all. As Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, told NBC News, the team assembled by Mueller, “(is) probably one of the most impressive groups ever assembled for a special counsel investigation… You’ve got a collective of prosecutors who’ve covered some of the most high-profile and complex investigations in the last 20 years.” These are highly regarded prosecutors, and there’s been not one shred of evidence to indicate that any of them were driven by political motivations.

OK, I could go on, but I think you probably get the point, right? We’re living in a hell world, completely untethered from reality, and we’ll all be dead soon… Good night.