President Donald Trump has been attacking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, daily.  There have been brutal attacks on Twitter, in media interviews, and during speeches.  Conventional wisdom is that Trump is getting ready to fire Sessions or hoping Sessions resigns.  Conventional wisdom also assured everyone that Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide, the only question being by how large a margin.

Trump's complaint is that his attorney general should not have recused himself from the Russia hacking hoax and that he is dragging his feet on long overdue investigations and prosecutions: Deep State leaks; unmasking; DNC and Clinton collusion with the Ukrainians; Hillary Clinton's reckless email management, including tens of thousands of missing emails; the Clinton Foundation Russian uranium deal; and all the mischief and criminality left over from the Obama administration, perpetuated to this day by the Deep State imbeds.

These are reasonable complaints.  After all, Trump promised to drain the swamp.  Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is leaking like a sieve.  Most of the daily news originates from Deep State leaks, much of it illegal but given a pass by the Justice Department.

Additionally, how could Sessions continue to work for a boss who is publicly berating him?  Who of us would put up with that in his job?  Sessions could easily say the heck with Trump and his endless criticism and quit.  He has had a good career.  Why would he want his last and most prestigious government job to be constantly whipped by his crazy boss?

Alternatively, Trump could fire Sessions.  All Cabinet officials serve at the pleasure of the president.  Cause is irrelevant – Trump's Cabinet, his call.  If Sessions is so bad, why hasn't he been fired?  James Comey was fired.  Sean Spicer was not officially fired, but in essence, he was, with the appointment of new communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

It doesn't make sense.  Rush Limbaugh was pondering this on his radio show.  He was puzzled.  Trump blasting Sessions, Sessions smiling and saying everything is fine in his world – what's wrong with this picture?

What if this is all one big distraction?  A charade?  A magic trick?

Famous magicians Penn and Teller have seven principles of magic.  One such principle is misdirection – to lead attention away from a secret move.  Suppose the Trump-Sessions feud is a magic trick, distracting the media while he pulls a rabbit out of his hat?

The media is breathless over Trump's next move.  Fire Sessions?  Fire Mueller?  What will his voters say?  What will Congress do?  Will they begin impeachment proceedings?  Will there be a coup against the president, as former CIA director John Brennan suggests?  Is this a grand distraction and illusion?  Everyone's watching Trump's right hand while he grabs the missing playing card in his left hand, ready to pull it out of the magic hat.

While the feud is playing out in the media, the Department of Justice is getting stuff done: cracking down on sanctuary cities, ramping up leak investigations, slowing illegal immigration.  Who knows what else?

What if this is all a show, and Sessions is in on it?  The White House press secretary and communications director may be part of the act as well, publicly playing into the president's dissatisfaction with Sessions and suggesting that he will be canned – "pouring gasoline on the Trump-Sessions fire," as the Washington Post described Sarah Huckabee Sanders's assessment.

It's the grand illusion: watch the feud while Sessions is running through the Trump checklist, cracking heads and taking no prisoners.

As a bonus, the media as well as Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans are rushing to Jeff Sessions's defense.  The guy who just a few months ago was a Klansman, a white supremacist, a racist, a bigot, a homophobe is now a victim, worthy of sympathy and support from the left.  Where does that leave his fair-weather supporters when he starts enforcing the laws his two predecessors ignored for the past eight years?  Trump just led them into a box that will not be easy to climb out of.  In six months, how can Jeff Sessions go from being Hitler to a sympathetic victim, then back to Hitler?

An alternate theory is that Trump's criticism may have motivated Sessions to get to work and pursue these recent initiatives.  But given the size and cumbersome nature of a bureaucracy like the Department of Justice, I don't believe that Sessions could get these investigations moving in just a few days or a week.  Instead, these were likely ongoing, perhaps part of the grand plan all along.

This is just my theory.  If Trump fires Sessions tomorrow, then my idea heads straight to the ash heap of foolishness.  But if he doesn't, don't watch Trump's Twitter account.  That's the magician's misdirection.  Instead, watch what isn't being widely reported in the mainstream news.  Watch what the lefty bloggers are having fits about.  That's where the magic trick is taking place.

Draining the swamp, holding the guilty accountable, fulfilling campaign promises.  Some say Trump is playing 3D chess while the media are playing checkers.  If the current feud is replaced by another kerfuffle in the next week or two and Jeff Sessions keeps his job enforcing the law, Trump may have pulled off another great charade.

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