The pool, that indefatigable group of reporters who are allowed the closest proximity to the president, came walking out of the Diplomatic Room yesterday, stern and quiet. President Donald Trump had just held court for the second time in one day with the pool, where he dealt with everything from hurricanes (using an altered weather map) to trade wars.

“Why does everyone look so happy?” I asked as the dozen or so stalwart individuals came walking through the Brady Briefing room. John Roberts, from Fox, shrugged and smiled. No one else said anything.

It had been two weeks since press secretary Stephanie Grisham had attempted to suspend my press pass for 30 days. Upon my return, the pool looked like they suffered from PTSD, or maybe Stockholm syndrome, but no one seemed happy. The White House seemed like a morose place, bereft of joy, humor and life, even more so than before I left. Maybe it was the lingering summer heat.

Or maybe it’s the consequence of covering the Trump administration.

You say you’ll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head.

I’d listened to the Beatles while driving to the White House earlier that day, and I laughed as I listened to “Revolution.” It was followed by the Plastic Ono Band’s “Cold Turkey,” since I was listening to the Beatles channel, and I locked in on these lines: "I’ll be a good boy, please make me well / I promise you anything, get me out of this hell."

I drove into the parking garage and walked the block to the White House, where renovations to the perimeter fence have made the Secret Service change the entrance reporters use into a small temporary structure the agents do not like because of cramped working conditions.

“Welcome back,” one of them said with a smile.

I smiled too and, after the momentary drama when I wasn’t sure my hard pass would work, I entered the grounds of the White House.

A couple of reporters greeted and thanked me for taking a stand against the White House and the unprofessional and lawless actions made by Grisham. The secretary joins a long list of liars at the White House, but Grisham is also far more mean-spirited than her predecessors and doesn’t understand the consequences. She continued to repeat several lies the administration had pushed against me in court, even after United States District Judge Rudolph Contreras called them out and forced them to give me back my hard pass. It is painful to watch someone lie and do so badly. It is horrifying when you learn that they represent your federal government. The government of, by and for the people is screwing the people.

The administration, of course, doesn’t understand the consequences either. It has declared war on free speech. Trump & co. have belittled us, tried to marginalize us. They push hard to make us sycophants. Twice now, first in Jim Acosta’s case, and secondly in mine, as the administration tried to shut us down, the courts have backed us up. What is most surprising is how little this administration has learned when it's got (paraphrasing majority leader Mitch McConnell) a mule kick to the head.

“You don’t know what it’s like dealing with them these last two weeks,” a reporter told me on Wednesday. “It’s so much worse. You’ve got a doddering old man who wants all the attention he can get being managed by Frick and Frack who lead the communication staff.”

My friend shook his head. “The senior communication staff is like two Ping-Pong balls bouncing around the room that only move when they get swatted by the president.”

So. What else is new?

Mike McCurry has often talked about how, when he was press secretary, the Clinton administration would change course or adapt strategies and plans based on the questions reporters brought to the president. The free flow of information was a give-and-take that enabled the government to adapt and work more efficiently. As Trump has shown, he’s not interested in any of that. He wants stenographers who sit quietly and take down what he says while he spews out his word vomit without analysis.

Wednesday he told the reporting pool that he wants to get out of Afghanistan because the military is being used as a police force there and that “isn’t their job.” He wasn’t asked and didn’t offer any explanation as to why the military has been used as a police force on our Southern border. But with Trump, logic doesn’t come into play and never has.

His fight to take my press pass was just another attempt to bully people. But what it shows is that his administration has no concept of how government operates or what its responsibility is to the American people. And it speaks volumes about consequences.

Judge Contreras deconstructed the government’s attempt to yank my press pass and in so doing showed that the White House hasn’t even the most basic notion of what due process is or how to enforce it. This, after they tried nearly the same thing with Jim Acosta and got the exact same results. They don’t learn and don’t care if they do, apparently.    

They merely want to say, if we step out of line, they’ll take our press pass away. What line? Whatever Trump wants and whenever. They have no definitive line.

But the Trump administration picked a fight, and if I hadn’t fought back, others who followed me could have suffered far more than I did. Next time, a reporter could have their press pass revoked for merely asking an unwanted question.

Conversely, what would happen if a zealous Democrat took over the presidency with the ability to throw people out at will—a precedent established by Donald Trump? That doesn’t bode well for the country either.

No one who loves the Constitution or has worked as a reporter takes any joy in saying this, but it’s the truth whether Trump fans want to hear it or not: This administration is run by unprofessional nincompoops with the collective intelligence of a ball of lint. Those in charge mostly want to make those suffer who don’t bow in fealty to them and the president. They fear being found out to be the frauds they are, so they perpetuate lies even when those lies are unmasked. But they don’t understand that the power they use indiscriminately today can be used against them tomorrow.

The last time I was in the White House before Grisham suspended my pass, Trump was heading to the G7. He had been in a mood all day long—yelling at staff, causing problems and putting off his departure. He didn’t want to go.

We all knew why. The G7 proved to be an unmitigated disaster. The leaders of the other countries worked around Trump while he pretended everything was going according to a plan he didn’t have and getting mad at the press because we wouldn’t fall for his fiction. Apparently Trump views public appearances and his entire presidency as reality TV, performance art or stand-up comedy.

Meanwhile, the White House press corps is shining a light—often at the expense of their own happiness and sometimes their own safety.

So what was that look on the faces of the reporters as they left Donald Trump for the second time on Wednesday? Resignation? Fear? Boredom? Fatigue? Probably all of the above and more. The real lesson the Trump administration has never learned can be summed up in something I told one of the members of his press staff months ago: “I was here before Donald Trump. I will be here after Donald Trump.”

You can attempt to bully us, but we’re not going anywhere.

Instant karma's gonna get you...