Tick tock tick tock tick tock.

NPR reports:

President Trump believes Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller has gone too far in his probe of potential ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Tuesday.

Her statement to reporters did little to tamp down speculation that Trump may seek to fire Mueller — an authority that Sanders says Trump enjoys.

Well it wouldn’t, would it. Saying Trump thinks Mueller has gone too far would do nothing to tamp down speculation that Trump will try to fire him, because we know Trump is more than stupid enough and way more than criminal enough.

Asked about Trump’s comments, Sanders said at a White House briefing on Tuesday that Trump was frustrated by the special counsel’s investigation. She also seemed to assert that the president has the authority to fire Mueller directly — as opposed to, for example, needing to instruct Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to do so.

“We’ve been advised that the president certainly has the power to make that decision,” Sanders said. She would not say whether firing Mueller is under consideration.

By…? The person who does Trump’s hair? Michael Cohen? Sean Hannity?

Under Justice Department rules, a special counsel can only be fired for “good cause,” and some legal experts say that to remove Mueller, Trump would have to go through Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations of the 2016 election.

Trump had harsh words for Sessions and Rosenstein on Monday, but Sanders would not say whether Trump would take any action to move them from their posts.

She likes to surprise us.

The political backlash that might follow a move by Trump to get rid of Mueller would be so intense that the White House has a powerful incentive not to attempt it, the thinking goes. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Tuesday that Trump would be committing “suicide.”

Let’s hope so.

Alan Dershowitz is at the White House for dinner.