Whom do we believe?
The Senate's health care bill - which was drafted in secrecy and should be named the Tax Care Reconciliation Act - was just the most recent Trump administration assault on transparency in government.
Despite Trump's "drain the swamp" pledges, this regime's mantra is hide from public scrutiny at every opportunity.
Examples: Agency officials have withheld internal documents from even friendly Republicans, Trump continues to forbid the release of his tax returns, the White House now refuses to release visitor logs, and media aides have started banning cameras at otherwise routine news briefings.
But why not? Tweets are now "official" statements, and it's perfectly clear that we shouldn't trust them.
As he feuded publicly with former FBI Director James Comey in the days after firing him, Trump on May 9 tweeted: "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Then Thursday, when it was clear the bluff aimed at intimidating Comey had failed, Trump chose the day that the secretive Senate health care bill was released to tweet again: "With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are 'tapes' or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings."
It seems like a rather lawyered statement for our president. After all, it contains several multi-syllable words. And they're all spelled correctly.
So who really wrote it? Who knows. Perhaps we'll just have to take this as part of the continuing pattern of secrecy.
Even the lawyers have lawyers
While Russiagate may be the single largest job threat for federal prosecutors and attorneys general (James Comey, Sally Yates, 46 Obama-era prosecutors gone in pretty much one fell swoop, and who knows - maybe yet special counsel Robert Mueller and the guy who appointed him, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein), it may however be something of a full employment stimulus package for defense attorneys.
After all, "outside counsel" is the phrase of the day in the White House.
The president has at least a couple of outside counsel defense lawyers now, and even one of them has done his own lawyering up. Trump's longtime attorney and adviser Michael Cohen recently hired a lawyer to represent him in the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Cohen told CNN. The move came after Cohen was subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee as part of the committee's probe into Russian meddling in the election.
Vice President Mike Pence has hired outside counsel, as has Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo. Some news outlets have reported that son-in-law Jared Kushner is in the market for one.
At least the Trump administration is good for one jobs sector.
Yes, it is all embarrassing
When is the last time you were embarrassed by your president?
If polling is right, that most recent time might be now.
Even in March, a poll by the McClatchy news organization and Marist College found that 60 percent of Americans said they are "embarrassed" by President Donald Trump. To the question: "Does Donald Trump's conduct as president so far make you feel: proud, embarrassed, unsure," only 30 percent said they felt "proud."
A few weeks later, another poll by Quinnipiac University found similar feelings: 52 percent of voters polled said they were embarrassed that Trump is leading the nation, while only 27 percent stated they were proud.
The Quinnipiac poll also found that Trump appears to be losing popularity within key factions of his voter base - men and white people. Fifty-one percent of the white male voters surveyed and 48 percent of all white voters polled said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his new job.
Yes, that's old news. But things aren't looking up.
Last Tuesday, a CBS poll found the president with only a 36 percent approval rating, overall. And on Wednesday, a Reuters poll gave him 38 percent approval.
On Friday, The New York Times editorial staff "catalogued nearly every outright lie the president has told publicly since taking the oath of office."
In summarizing the list, the Times wrote: "Trump told public lies or falsehoods every day for his first 40 days" as president, ending the streak only on March 1. Since then he has said something untrue on at least 74 of 113 days, according to the Times.
In that same time, polls show he's paid at least some price for it. The Times notes that 53 percent of Americans told pollsters "no" they would not say Donald Trump was honest when he took office. Today, 60 percent of Americans say no, the president is not honest.
Imagine what those "are-you-embarrassed" questions might look like today?