Krauthammer has advice for Trump to kickstart his 'immobilized' agenda

Fox News' Tucker Carlson characterized President Donald Trump's agenda as "immobilized" Thursday by the constant scandals and obstacles, and asked conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer how the president could right the ship. Krauthammer explained five things he could do.

"Well, I think you take your playbook from Bill Clinton," he explained. "He's caught up in the [Monica] Lewinsky scandal. And in his case, he knows he's lying from the very beginning. Keeps on lying, but he was able to keep a straight face. Tried to keep his nose to the business he wanted to carry out. The famous statement, 'I did not have sexual relations' end with 'and now I gotta go back to work.' So he just pretended as if this thing was on the side, it was a distraction, he went back to work."

"So what Trump needs to do is spend less effort and time and emotional energy on this," he said. "Starting with, you make an unimpeachable FBI director appointment. Right now, he needs to calm the craziness. I think he actually was helped by the appointment of this special counsel. Even though in the long run it means the White House loses control of this."

"In the short run," he explained, "people say, 'well look there's an investigation, let's talk about health care, let's talk about tax reform.' That'll take care — it's a way to deflect. If you make a good appointment for the FBI — by 'good' I mean politically astute. Which means somebody unimpeachable. On 'Special Report,' I said, what you need is an Elliot Ness."

Krauthammer continued with the third thing Trump could do.

"Stop tweeting," he said, "now that's never gonna happen. Because I think he's hard-wired like neurologically attached to his tweeting machine. But it would help because when you tweet you say what you really believe and that's not always, that's not usually the smartest thing in politics. You know, I tell the truth because it's easier to memorize, but I'm not the president or a politician.

"Number three, go on the foreign trip," he said, "and thereby, number four, change the narrative. He's got a real opportunity. It's going to be a big deal what happens in Saudi Arabia. There's gonna be 50 Sunni Arab countries there. There's gonna be an announcement to the world of the total reversal of the Obama-Iran appeasement policy, where we chose a radical Shiite jihadist regime. We chose their favor over the Sunni Arabs who want to support us, and over Israel, which will be stop number two. That'll be a big deal, it'll allow him to announce and really exemplify a huge change in foreign policy."

"The last thing," he concluded, jovially, "is daily sessions with Dr. Krauthammer. I'm still licensed, board certified, and he's the only one who can afford my rates."

After a few jokes, he explained further. "He doesn't easily compartmentalize. He doesn't have that kinda of, almost psychopathic ability to make distinctions as Clinton did. I think he gets sort of into everything and it takes him over. So I don't think he can, but that's why he needs to see me, probably for an hour a day for several years."

It has been a stinging few weeks for the Trump administration with constant leaks and bombshell stories from the media, usually with anonymous sources. The president is scheduled to leave Friday on his first foreign trip, which include stops in Saudi Arabia, the Holy Land, and Europe.

A successful trip with few gaffes or mistakes will allow him to wipe away some of the stormy clouds on his administration, but any further obstacles will cripple it all the more.