We've said it before, but it bears repeating. You can't make this stuff up.
Let us add: Hyperbole is dead.
Our president reportedly shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador when he invited them into the Oval Office last week along with a Russian state photographer while banning all U.S. media from the meeting.
During that meeting, the president's boastful disclosures of "great intel" on a looming terror threat jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State, according to The Washington Post. It was an information-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details had been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the exchange told the Post.
It is, finally, a Trumpian move that is bringing real alarm to the sound of comments from a handful of Republicans, including Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Obviously, they are in a downward spiral right now and have got to figure out a way to come to grips with all that's happening," Corker said of the Trump administration. "The chaos that is being created by the lack of discipline is creating an environment that I think makes - it creates a worrisome environment." he added.
Clearly, understatement is still alive.
Trump and his keepers meanwhile offer non-denial denials. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, said "at no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed, and the president did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known." Of course, the Post story didn't say those things.
And Trump himself, in tweets of course, defended himself. "As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do "
Yes, he has the right. But most presidents "share" with allies, not enemies. And most "share" smartly, in carefully choreographed State Department settings - not meetings that send our security people scurrying to clean up after him and try to save lives.
The Washington Post wrote: "After Trump's meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security
Agency."
Of primary concern was that the details Trump boastfully shared had come from a partner country intelligence group that the partner had not given the U.S. permission to share with Russians. Officials told the Post and other news gatherers that Trump's decision to talk so freely endangers cooperation from an ally with access to the inner workings of the Islamic State.
What Trump did would be illegal for anyone else, but not for a president.
And don't forget what we should expect Trump to have been saying to Russians: Stop meddling in our elections!
But wait, that helped this president, who has nothing but praise for Vladimir Putin - and nothing but taunts, threats and firings for those engaged in investigating that meddling and the president's reported ties to Russia.
We had eight different investigations into Hillary Clinton emails on personal accounts that might have contained classified information. Only a handful, by the way, contained information that was classified, and it was not classified at the time she was emailing it.
Remember Trump's comments about that? "She's unfit," he railed. "Who would be so stupid to do what she did with her emails?"
But Trump, who incited chants of "lock her up," shares information several magnitudes more secretive than a simple "classified" or "confidential" with a nation considered our enemy. He didn't just share it. He bragged about it.
One would expect that the list of Trump administration investigations already pending just grew.
But, of course, the investigators - like former FBI Director James Comey and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of New York who was working on money laundering or other Russia/Trump money connections - keep getting fired. And we're only at day 117 of this administration.
Just think, what might coming days bring? After all, Trump on Friday is set to go abroad on a 10-day trip to visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican. Along the way, he'll attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and a G7 summit in Sicily.
"Worrisome" is an understatement of what Americans and our senators should feel.