I ASSUME THE WHITE HOUSE LEAKED THE AUDIO

Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, captured on leaked audio:

President Trump unloaded on the nation's governors Monday morning, calling them "weak" for failing to more aggressively enforce law and order over the weekend....

One participant on the call described the president's words and tone as "unhinged."

"You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you. You're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate," the president told governors.

(Is he channeling Roy Cohn? His father? Both?)

The president said that the violence "is coming from the radical left — you know, it everybody knows it — but it's also looters, and it's people that figure they can get free stuff by running into stores and running out with television sets. I saw it — a kid has a lot of stuff, he puts it in the back of a brand new car and drives off. You have every one of these guys on tape. Why aren't you prosecuting them? Now, the harder you are, the tougher you are, the less likely you're going to be hit."

Right - instantly identify every looter on every grainy video and then just instantly find them and arrest them. That's how easy President Guy At The End Of The Bar Yelling At The TV thinks actual work is.

More:

On the call, Trump references Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Milley and Attorney General Bill Barr. "We will activate Bill Barr and activate him very strongly," Trump says.

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020

I bet that's news to General Milley, who I'm certain has no desire to see his troops deployed against civilians. (Barr, I imagine, is far more eager to do whatever he's asked.)

TRUMP ADDS: "You know when other countries watch this, they’re watching this, the next day wow, they’re really a push over. And we can’t be a push over. And we have all the resources – it’s not like we don’t have the resources. So, I don’t know what you’re doing."

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 1, 2020

Do you think it's a coincidence that Trump also spoke to Vladimir Putin today?

—>> President Trump informed Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call of his suggestion to invite Russia to the upcoming G7 summit, the Kremlin says.

The Kremlin said the call was initiated by the US side.

- @CNN Moscow

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) June 1, 2020

Reporters may have subsequently found governors who were appalled at the tone of the call, but I'm convinced that the White House leaked this audio. I'm quoting above from CBS News, but The New York Times and The Washington Post are also reporting what Trump said. It's being distributed far and wide. You'd assume that the White House would technologically prevent audio of a call like this from ever leaking. So I think the leak was from Trump's people.

Of course the White House wants this out. The imagine of Trump right now is that he's cowering in the White House's secure underground bunker, afraid to emerge. Republican critics are mocking him for this.

No tweets from the #BunkerBitch for almost 24 hours.

The White House, dark.

Trump's advisors, panicked.

A dozen reporters working stories about the West Wing crisis mode.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) June 1, 2020

So, new rule: From now on, respond to every single Trump tweet with a simple #BunkerBaby, #BunkerBoy, or #BunkerBitch. Your call. https://t.co/nUwfOTIEoJ

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) June 1, 2020

Another president might try to unite America at this moment. Trump just wants to show up he's not the weak one, you're the weak one.