title:  Trump’s Own Staff Thinks He’s A Joke, Laughs Off His July 4th Ultimatum
text: As the Russian investigation is getting uncomfortably close to home for Donald Trump and as his insistence on profiting from the office of the presidency could come crashing down on his head, the White House is panicking. This time, though, the staff doesn t seem to care. After Trump delivered a July 4th ultimatum to his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, he laughed it off.Politico reports that Trump set July 4th as a deadline for a staff shakeup. This is at least the third such ultimatum Trump has given his chief of staff and none of them (so far) have come to fruition. He threatened Priebus on the 100-day mark of his presidency and then again as Memorial Day approached. The shakeups never happened and Priebus still has his job. It s become comical that every holiday becomes a referendum on Reince,  said one adviser to the president.Sensing his impending doom even before he was criticized for fallout related to the firing of FBI director James Comey, Reince had joked,  I ve got one foot on a banana peel and another out the door,  according to a person with knowledge of the conversation.Source: PoliticoThis time, though, Trump means it for realz. He even floated some names as replacements. Oh, wait, he s actually done that before:Trump has openly floated the idea of other potential chiefs of staff, including former campaign aide David Urban and Wayne Berman, a Blackstone executive and advisor to Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman. Shortly after national security adviser Michael Flynn was fired in February, Trump invited New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to the White House to help brainstorm about a new chief of staff, according to a White House official and outside adviser with knowledge of the situation.What Trump doesn t seem to realize (or perhaps he does) is that firing Priebus isn t going to help him with his legal problems. An entirely new staff isn t going to help him. Trump is in over his head and he refuses to learn or even to listen to advice.While he might be sincere this time, the more likely story is that Trump simply wants to change the headlines for the day. Rumors of a staff shakeup take the focus off the Russian investigation, sort of.Featured image via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images