Since Election Day, when the entire Washington, D.C. establishment was expecting a Hillary Clinton landslide victory, the establishment's goal has been to get rid of Donald Trump.  It began the day after the election.  Once Mrs. Clinton stopped throwing and breaking things in her hotel room, John Podesta and her team concocted the Russia collusion story to explain her surprising electoral loss.

The reality is that the Russia-Russia story was already being worked in the FBI and DOJ via investigations and FISA warrants constituting the infamous "insurance policy" in the unlikely event that Trump did win the election – or to ruin him if he lost, sending a message to any future outsider candidate who dares to challenge the Deep State nominees.

Since then, the entire goal of the Deep State has been to somehow get rid of President Trump.  There has been a withering attack on Trump from the media, 24-7, with over 90 percent negative coverage.  No other president, including other Republicans, have had monolithic media opposition day in and day out, including the constant stream of fake news.

The Deep State is working in concert with the media to destroy Trump, as evidenced by the ongoing revelations hopefully fully brought to light with the DOJ-OIG report.  How ironic that Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein wrote a letter to the president recommending that FBI director James Comey be fired.  Then, when Trump followed his recommendation, Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to go after Trump, in part as a reaction to Comey's termination. How's that for a Deep State trap?

Now, almost a year into Robert Mueller's Russian collusion investigation, there is no evidence of collusion or election-hacking.  Despite a team of Democrat attorneys and investigators with an unlimited investigative scope and budget, Mueller has come up empty.  If there were evidence of collusion or election tampering, we would certainly know it by now.

Does anyone believe that if Trump really did collude with Putin to hack the election, Putin wouldn't use that against Trump?  Instead Trump has imposed sanctions and bombed Russian troops.  And now Trump is on the verge of initiating military action in Syria, against Russian interests.  If Putin had evidence of election collusion, he could end Trump's presidency immediately by releasing this evidence.  Congress would happily take up impeachment, with alacrity not seen in any of its other legislative efforts.

There is no doubt Congress has the votes for impeachment.  Now the congressmen are only waiting for a proper excuse.  Democrats would vote as a unified block to impeach the president.  Since election day, Maxine Waters has been talking about impeachment every time she gets near a microphone.

NeverTrump Erick Erickson recently reported a conversation with an unnamed GOP Congressman who told him, "Needless to say I think if the president were to fire Robert Mueller at this point the votes are there to impeach him."  That's the excuse they are now looking for.  A new tactic.

The collusion story is going nowhere.  Mueller's petty indictments and plea deals are for process crimes or allegations not involving the president or his election.  Time for a shift in tactics, specifically goading the president to fire Mueller, giving Congress the excuse they are waiting for.

The media this week is talking nonstop – not about Stormy Daniels, like last week, but pondering whether Trump will fire Mueller.  Below is a tweet from MSNBC using a poll to raise the issue.

This is the new tactic, the latest scheme to get rid of President Trump.  Create grounds for impeachment by goading Trump into firing Mueller.

Could the raid on Trump's attorney's office be part of the effort?  Crossing a "red line," way beyond the mandate for the special counsel?

Interestingly, this tactic was attempted, unsuccessfully, last January. The New York Times played a major role, via fake news, publishing a bogus story about Mueller's office subpoenaing Trump's bank records from Deutsche Bank, crossing a "red line" in the investigation.  At the time, Trump supposedly almost fired Mueller, but his advisers successfully got him to back down, avoiding the impeachment trap.

Is the Michael Cohen raid the latest attempt to goad Trump into firing someone, whether Mueller, Rosenstein, or Sessions?  Even lefties like Michael Moore have joined the chorus, saying in a tweet, "President Trump! You let Mueller get away with breaking into your lawyer's office!!  Mueller & Sessions & Rosenstein are laughing at you!"  He went on to taunt, "I can't believe you're putting up w/ this!  I thought u were a strong man.  Americans want a strongman in the White House!"

Sure, far left-wingnut  Michael Moore has Donald Trump's back and his best interests in mind.  Instead, this is part of the new plan, goading the president into doing something that starts the wheels of impeachment.

CNN, always with a front row seat in all of this, headlined, "Donald Trump has never been more likely to fire Robert Mueller than he is right now."  Based on what?  Is this from their anonymous sources or their wishful thinking?

Impeachment is for "high crimes and misdemeanors," not necessarily overt criminal acts.  It's a political, not a legal maneuver, and up to Congress to decide whether their hatred of Donald Trump rises to the level of impeachment.

All they need is the excuse, as the above mentioned congressman said.  "A lot of Republican Congressmen are so frustrated and realizing they may lose their reelection that they are perfectly happy to take out the President with them because they all blame him."

Where I disagree is whether Republicans are going to lose re-election because of the president or rather because of their total lack of accomplishment and their resistance to the president's agenda.  Is GOP establishment hatred of Trump so overpowering that they are willing to do anything to damage or remove Trump, including lose the midterm elections?

Republican congressmen are resigning or not running for reelection, including Speaker Paul Ryan, who just announced that he is calling it quits when his term ends.  The GOP Congress has thrown in with the Deep State and donors over their voters. What better way to get rid of Trump than to flip the House to the Democrats, or make GOP control much slimmer?

After all, the collusion story is coming up empty.  Impeachment is next, but the swamp needs a proper high crime or misdemeanor. Firing Mueller would rise to that level as many members of Congress have said.

Watch the media beat the drums for Trump firing Mueller, the next tactic to dump Trump.  The President, however, is a smart guy and surely knows this.  If he sticks to his agenda and shines the light of day on FBI-DOJ malfeasance, he will ultimately win.  If he succumbs to taunting and temptation, firing anyone investigating him, Congress will pounce, and he will lose.  Time for POTUS to keep a cool and focused head, sticking to the MAGA agenda.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver based physician and writer.  Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn and Twitter.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.