"Trump surprises his lawyers and alarms his friends by saying he will talk with Mueller" reads the seemingly innocuous headline in WaPo. But a more accurate headline would say "Trump surprises no one by saying he will talk with Mueller."
Such proclamations from Trump fit a pattern of behavior. When he seems cornered and may even feel cornered, he makes whatever statement which, coming from him, would, if true, best serve his interests. He makes these statements without regard to future events or actual intent, knowing full well that the traditional rules that apply to anyone else do not apply to him. His support is based on faith and the full support of so-called Fox News. No supporter is ever going to hold him to his word.
Presenting himself as eager to talk to Mueller makes him appear both positive and innocent to his supporters and comes at no cost because he will not be held accountable later if he refuses to testify and gives any reason, however implausible, for that refusal. The WaPo piece mentions that the tax returns have never been produced speaking of a "Houdini-like willingness to wiggle out of commitments." But there is a method to this madness:
An implausible and nonsensical excuse for not doing something is more powerful than a reasonable justification - by being illogical, it is irrefutable with logic
Why? Because a reasonable justification can be refuted with reason, with logic and lead to a sensible back-and-forth rational discussion. But Trump survives on illogic and fallacy. There is no way to make rational arguments against irrationality. If supporters are willing to ignore rationality, Trump can get away with this forever.
Take the Trump tweet of May 12, 2017
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
Even though this tweet fits the Trumpian pattern of endless lies and obfuscation - backed into a corner, he comes out with a distracting statement, a justification for the present or a promise for the future built upon a lie. If you think of Trump as anything like a rational human being, which he is not, you can't help but think - "Oh, so there may be a record of some kind, not exactly tapes, but objective evidence that would make Comey out to be a liar." Just sending us down that road serves the purpose of the day. For Trump, there is no tomorrow to worry about.
For whatever tomorrow brings will just mean a new and different lie - a "surprising" statement according to our reality based, but still often clueless press. In a sane world, Trump would always be presumed lying with every statement he makes and, if at a later date, he was found not to be lying, then the headline would read "The Time That Trump Was Not Lying."
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