Trump Says Parody Is Basically Treason Now

President Donald Trump was fully on one this morning, starting off another week by ranting about civil war and fixating on every possible unhinged defense of his conduct around a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. First up was House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, whose opening statement during a hearing on the whistleblower complaint has been melting Trump’s brain for days.

Here’s what he’s on about: unfortunately for almost everyone involved, Schiff tried to do a bit in his opening statement, parodying the president’s conduct in a dramatized version of the phone call.

Since Trump and the Republicans are utterly deaf to nuance whenever being obtuse serves their political goals, this has backfired massively: Schiff later said the remarks were intended as parody, which they clearly were, but try making that case to this guy, who has been screaming about it since last week.

Since then, Trump has gone from calling for Schiff’s resignation to now calling for his arrest for treason. The Schiff tweet appears to have kicked off an early Monday meltdown as well:

I, for one, am extremely glad the discourse around the most consequential threat to the Trump administration has been reduced this, in no small part due to the House Intelligence Committee chairman’s decision to try to do a funny. Comedy: not yet treason, but still always a mistake!