Robert Mueller III was a Bronze Star Marine veteran, FBI director, and American citizen. When the President of the United States heard the news that Mueller died today, he said: “Well, I’m glad he’s dead.”
Mueller was honored for his service in Vietnam, and served under both presidents as director of the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Donald Trump, whose diagnosis of spurs prevented him from being sent to the same war, has repeatedly repeated be despised America’s war dead as “losers” and “exploiters,” and he has expressed disgust in front of wounded soldiers (“Nobody wants to see that, wounded,” Trump once. he complained to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).
Trump has never tried to be president of all Americans. That shortcoming was evident as he celebrated the death of a man who gave his life to the country that Trump now leads. Of course, Mueller led the investigation into whether there was collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016. Trump never pardoned him.
Even by the low standards Trump has set, cheering for someone else’s death is disgusting. Not that it hasn’t happened before. Just four months ago, Trump posted on social media that filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife were killed in their own home because Reiner was a frequent critic of Trump. (The couple’s son has been charged with their murder, and investigators have not said politics played a role in the murders.) In general, the vicious personal attacks are Trump’s style: He has repeatedly mocked women’s looks. He called African nations “shithole countries.” He embraced the racist lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He made a fist out of the vicious attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. The list goes on from there.
Mueller, in recent years, had withdrawn from the spotlight. He made few public appearances after his 2019 testimony before Congress at the end of its investigation into Trump; his performance at the time was, at times, shaky and confusing. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years later. He died at the age of 81.
Trump, with his nation at war, spent the day playing golf near his luxury Palm Beach estate. He was still at his club when news of Mueller’s death broke. Trump deleted his comments shortly after. The impulse was light. Representative Seth Moulton, a veteran Democrat from Massachusetts, responded with his own post saying that Trump is “a terrible human being and a disgrace to America.” His colleague Dan Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, said, “Mueller and Trump represent the opposite of what a public servant should be.”
The Russia investigation—or, as Trump put it, the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax”—has long vexed the president. Questions had swirled in the 2016 campaign about possible ties between Moscow and Trump and his allies. Trump himself fueled the speculation and, in May 2017, fired FBI director James Comey, who was leading the investigation into possible collusion. Trump did not hide why he did it: The next day, he welcomed the Russian ambassador to the Oval Office and. he told her that firing Comey “removed” the “enormous pressure” Trump faced over the investigation. More than a week later, the Justice Department named Mueller, then retired, as special counsel to investigate the sitting president.
The investigation overshadowed Trump, who only added to it by making policy decisions and frequent statements that favored Russia and its authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin. This was evident at their July 2018 summit in Helsinki when Trump, in response to a question I asked about Moscow’s election meddling, sided with Putin over his country’s intelligence agencies and then moved on to another argument about the Russia investigation.
Meanwhile, at home, Mueller became an unlikely pop culture figure. Democrats pinned their hopes on him — there were more T-shirts, mugs, and social media memes than you can count — as they sincerely hoped the Mueller investigation would exonerate Trump. It was a fitful fit; Mueller stayed out of sight and ordered his team to remain silent; despite repeated attacks from Trump and Republicans, his team did not comment. That silence and the consequent air of mystery, in a way, incited the Democrats more; surely, they said, Mueller would save the day.
He didn’t do that. Trump never sat down for an interview, and Mueller’s team relied on DOJ guidelines that said presidents cannot be charged with crimes. Mueller concluded that it cannot be proven that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. And he did not comment on whether Trump obstructed justice in trying to block the investigation. Mueller first released his report to Attorney General Bill Barr in March 2019, and Barr prepared it for public consumption, painting it in a way favorable to the president. Trump claimed that the results were “completely removed.” It wasn’t like that. But his presidency survived.
Trump has always ruled as an “us versus them” president. Every other man who has sat in the Oval Office has at least nodded toward unity or made an effort to win over those who didn’t vote for him. Trump never has. Instead, he has vilified perceived opponents—whether Democrats, journalists, or any other average American—as traitors or enemies of the people. In his second term, he has used the Justice Department, the same agency where Mueller worked for nearly 30 years, as a tool for retaliation. Traditionally there was a sharp line between the DOJ and the West Wing; these days, the Justice Department headquarters in Washington has displayed Trump’s face on a large poster hanging out front. The agency has opened an investigation against several of Trump’s enemies, including Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and others. Trump has used federal powers to punish law firms, universities and blue-chip states. He added masked ICE agents in cities that didn’t vote for him. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post about Mueller.
Other presidents have been fanatics; other presidents have shown bad behavior. But only Trump has publicly rejoiced at the death of an American. Mueller never sought attention, although his life story was worthy of biological treatment. He volunteered to fight in Vietnam and won numerous citations, including a Bronze Star for combat heroism when he rescued a wounded Marine under enemy fire during an attack in 1968. The following year, he was shot in combat. He returned to lead his squad a few months later. He later practiced law, became a United States attorney, and rose through the ranks of the Department of Justice before being selected by President George W. Bush to be director of the FBI shortly before the September 11 attacks.
At the end of Mueller’s 10-year term, the president of the other party, Barack Obama, asked him to stay on for another two years. Mueller was approved by all senators, Republican and Democrat alike, 100 to 0.
