Trump fired James Comey after FBI director called him 'crazy' and 'beyond realms of normal'

Donald Trump’s controversial sacking of James Comey may have been caused in part by the FBI director calling the US President “crazy”.

According to the New York Times, Comey had been taken aback by Trump’s Twitter claims that then-President Barack Obama had been wire-tapping Trump Tower during the US election.

Comey may have unwittingly put a nail in his coffin as FBI director when he apparently told associates that Trump’s claims were “outside the realm of normal”, and “crazy”.

Trump responded angrily to Comey’s public dismissal of his claims, and began to talk then of firing him.

Other factors in this decision, apart their obvious personality clash, include the FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US election, as well as Comey’s refusal to furnish Trump’s team with a copy of his planned testimony to a Senate panel last week.

The White House confirmed that Trump had been thinking about firing Comey since his election win in November and felt more “strongly inclined” after the then FBI director’s testimony before Congress last week.

Multiple outlets have also reported that the former FBI director requested a “significant increase” in funding and personnel from deputy AG Rod Rosenstein days before he was fired.

MORE: Sean Spicer did NOT actually hide in the bushes to avoid reporters asking about fired FBI Director
MORE: These are the people Donald Trump has fired – and why

The New York Times said that Trump decided the FBI director’s time had come last weekend, telling aides there was “something wrong with” Comey.

It is believed that the President felt he couldn’t trust Comey, and his frustrations finally boiled over on Tuesday when the controversial dismissal took place.

Comey’s farewell letter, in which he writes that he has “long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason, or for no reason at all” has already been widely circulated.

He added: “I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed.”

Comey advisor Daniel C. Richman said on Wednesday: “With a president who seems to prize personal loyalty above all else and a director with absolute commitment to the Constitution and pursuing investigations wherever the evidence led, a collision was bound to happen.”

Roger J. Stone Jr, an informal adviser to Trump who the New York Times reports has also been under FBI scrutiny as part of the Russia inquiry, said soon after Comey’s dismissal on Tuesday: “There was a sense in the White House, I believe, that enough was enough when it came to this guy.”