Things aren’t quite that dire, the President can only pardon federal crimes. Murder of protestors would be a state crime.
On the other hand, if he were to say that, it would surely encourage murders committed by folks who don’t know about the federal-state distinction. And even if you can still prosecute the murderers afterwards, it’s much better if they don’t murder in the first place.
How does the turnover in Trump’s administration compare to previous Presidents? I’m pretty sure he’s the record, but who was the second-most, and with how many changes of personnel? And for that matter, exactly how many changes has Trump’s administration had?
Democracy is messy. Why expect total agreement and compliance?
I think it’s part of his plan to shield himself from prosecution. And most of these people were hired to be fired. A revolving door of personnel increases chaos and makes pinning anything on anyone much harder, in my opinion. Everything will be way too messy to unravel I would think.
I say he knows exactly what he’s doing.
He’s trying to minimize the damage to the country. That involves “get rid of all white supremacists you can.” Kelly has it within his means to get rid of Bannon and Gorka. He does not have it within his means to get rid of Trump. No contradiction.
Trump has the record of turnover for the first year of a presidency.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/verify/verify-is-trumps-staff-turnover-unusual/461137333
So, extraordinary for the first year (that is not over yet!), but close to normal for the last years of an administration or when there are scandals.
Carter builds houses.
Trump convinces an investor to front the money to build a house, hires a contractor to build the house, stiffs the contractor when the invoice comes in, and pockets the investor’s money.
But yeah, in both cases there’s a house built.
True, if we’re talking about local police forces. But suppose he just ignored the posse comitatus statute and started sending in federal troops to deal with police matters? He pushed the idea of sending in a federal presence in Chicago but pulled back, kind of in the “Ah shit, I was just joking” vein. But that’s what he does again and again. Float an idea, then pull it back. He telegraphs his moves to see the reaction, then figures people will get pissed but they’ll get over it and nobody has the balls to stand up to him. He fired Bannon and Gorka, then said he’d pardon Arpaio - and did just that.
Nobody expects total agreement and compliance. But this is Trump vs his own administration. You’re expected to be able to work with your own staff.
The problem is, Trump does expect total agreement and compliance. Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and all the rest have had disagreements with their cabinets. But they stayed on despite those disagreements.
That might be his plan, but I can’t see how it would work. When everyone else is going through the revolving door, but the same garbage keeps on going on, the only person left to blame is the one who’s not going through the revolving door.
SECDEF is in the chain of command to pass along those illegal orders; CJCS can be if SECDEF chooses to use them in a role with command authority. Even if he Saturday night massacres it to get an Acting SECDEF who will pass along the order there’s still all the officers in the chain down to the commander of the force assigned the mission. They would all have to ignore their oath and pass along a plainly illegal order. It would also require the enlisted troops to execute that plainly illegal order. (In case you think unthinking compliance is the order of the day for senior enlisted let me quote the First Sergeant who was my Acting CSM when he merely wanted to open a discussion about clearly legal orders - “You gotta be fucking kidding me , Sir!” )
There would also be the Governor and State AG to go postal about the overreach and push it immediately into court. Remember, aside from specific legally defined exceptions for insurrection, federal troops work for civilian authorities in the state when deployed in support of civil operations like law enforcement. That means another possible avenue of legal challenge for the Governor even if the posse commitatus piece is at all legally vague.
If all rule of law breaks down and state level governments, the judicial branch, and the military all roll over to allow something that is blatantly illegal …then we’re screwed. It takes quite a bit more than Trump just ordering it.
“What? And leave show business?”
Not exactly a ‘White House aide’, but…
Trump Punishes Longtime Aide After Angry Phoenix Speech, Sources Say.
Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and the rest all had more sense than Trump. None of them would have tried to do any of a number of the dumb things that Trump has done. So their staffers wouldn’t have needed to disagree with those Presidents over doing dumb things.
It didn’t work out quite that way when he tried it with his golf course in Scotland. 
You left out the part where Trump somehow ends up with title to the house free and clear, then sells it and pockets the money a second time.
Or mortgages it for 10x what it’s worth, pockets that money, then has the entity that signed the mortgage declare BK and walk on the mortgage.
Reagan had to let several of his team go in his first term. I think Clinton’s cabinet had a few scandals over the first few years too.
When you bring in an amateur, an outsider, a neophyte, a naïf, to run the White House, many of the people who tag along are going to be less qualified, and some much less trustworthy, and you’ll have to fix these personnel mistakes. And the guy at the top, without any Washington experience, is going to make a lot of personnel mistakes.
And Trump is, well, he’s an amateur, an outsider, a neophyte, a naïf, and a crook.
What proportion of Carter’s houses are still standing, and what proportion of Trump’s are homes for owls now? I expect there’s a better average on Carter’s.
And another one bites the dust:
“President Trump ‘Crushed’ That Longtime Personal Bodyguard Is Leaving the White House: Report”
No shit, Sherlock.