Is Friday Really Trump’s Favorite Firing Day?

Plenty of Washington watchers believe that Friday is the day that President Trump’s tweeting trigger finger gets itchy, the day he is most likely to wake up and fire someone. With rumors currently swirling inside and outside the Beltway—will Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein get the ax today? Will Trump finally pink slip his nemesis, special counsel Robert Mueller?—end-of-week speculation is at an all-time high. To see if past is, indeed, prologue, we decided to examine just how many heavy hitters have eaten dirt on a Friday.

At first, it seems like a lot: Fridays saw the sacking of the hapless White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the punching-bag Communications Director Sean Spicer, who not only was the object of Melissa McCarthy’s scathing Saturday Night Live impersonation but is also said to have inhabited the bunny suit for Easter 2017. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price also bit the dust on a Friday, as did the noxious national security aide Sebastian Gorka and the godfather of soullessness, Steve Bannon (who is still foaming at the mouth—despite his banishment, earlier this week he was allegedly clamoring for the president’s ear to find a way to eviscerate Mueller). And then there were those who voluntarily flew the coop on a Friday: deputy national security adviser Dina Powell; Trump adviser billionaire Carl Icahn; and perhaps most importantly, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, who would have been next in line after Rosenstein in terms of firing Mueller.

On the other hand, closer examination reveals that other days of the week are not exactly safe havens for Trump loyalists either. Mondays spelled doom for the now-indicted national security advisor Michael Flynn and Trump’s personal aide John McEntee (supposedly for an unrestrained appetite for Internet gambling). The foul-mouthed former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was also kicked out on the first day of the workweek. Tuesdays saw Trump bidding a very un-fond farewell to FBI Director James Comey (whose new book—advance copies just out!—paints quite a lurid portrait of this presidency). And Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, was fired by tweet on a Tuesday.

Resignations include Keith Schiller, the president’s longtime bodyguard (don’t feel too bad, he is still on the RNC payroll); chief economic adviser Gary Cohn; and just this past Tuesday, Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert, who packed up and hit the road.

Hello, Wednesdays! Say goodbye to a slew of insiders—VA head David Shulkin was sacked on a Wednesday, as was Communications Director for the White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault Newman. The notorious accused spouse-abuser White House aide Rob Porter was also booted out on a Wednesday, the same day of the week that his rumored former paramour, Communications Director Hope Hicks, bid adieu to her Oval Office friends. Only two names to share with you for Thursdays, but they are choice: National security adviser H.R. McMaster got the heave-ho on a Thursday; and the president’s attorney John Dowd waved bye-bye on a Thursday as well.

And here we are back on to Friday! Could this be the very Friday that the president does what he has been clearly dying to do since Mueller took over the Russia investigation? He certainly appears to be in quite a mood this morning, tweeting, among other things, that Comey, Mueller’s predecessor, is a “weak and untruthful slimeball . . .”