Trump just ramped up his Mueller hate tweets. Here's why.

It was a rough weekend in Trumpworld. You can tell by the president’s tweets.

In the last 48 hours, he’s ratcheted up his rhetoric against Robert Mueller’s team of investigators, calling them thugs and comparing their actions to McCarthyism.

Trump started Monday as he’d finished Sunday, with a barrage of tweets about what he’s repeatedly called the special counsel’s “rigged witch hunt” into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.

On Monday morning, a trio of Trump tweets continued his attack, saying the “disgraced and discredited” Mueller had found no collusion and was instead “enjoying ruining people’s lives.”

Trump’s anger was piqued this weekend by reports that former White House counsel Don McGahn had cooperated extensively with Mueller’s team, as well as the revelation that his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was being investigated for bank fraud in excess of $20 million.

Here’s what you need to know about a tumultuous 48 hours in Trumpworld:

According to a New York Times scoop on Saturday, McGahn has spent some 30 total hours with Mueller investigators and provided “detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice,” including information that the team would otherwise not have learned about.

McGahn was so accommodating because Trump’s legal team (at the time) decided to comply fully with Mueller’s probe — because they believed their client had nothing to hide — and because he was worried Trump might set him up as a scapegoat.

McGahn and his lawyer therefore came up with a strategy to be as open as possible to prove that there was no wrongdoing on his part.

Trump initially appeared to take the revelation quite well, tweeting Saturday evening that he had allowed McGahn ”to fully cooperate” with Mueller. (He didn't need Trump's permission, as he represents the office of the president, not the man himself). However 12 hours later, the U.S. president’s anger was clear to see:

In a follow-up article published Sunday, the New York Times reported that Trump’s lawyers now realized they didn’t know everything that McGahn had told Mueller.

Trump’s been obsessed with John Dean’s role as part of Richard Nixon’s administration, and the president was reportedly enraged that McGahn could pose a similar threat to him.

Dean was heavily involved in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal when he was Richard Nixon's White House counsel. He then flipped and became a key witness for the prosecution.

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1031219288546267136

When asked about Trump’s comments, Dean told Axios: “I am actually honored to be on his enemies list, as I was on Nixon's when I made it there. This is a president I hold in such low esteem I would be fretting if he said something nice.”

On Sunday, Trump continued to lash out at Mueller’s investigation, comparing his probe to the Cold War-era investigation of alleged communists conducted by then Sen. Joseph McCarthy. However, Trump said the current investigation would make McCarthy “look like a baby.”

Trump’s bad mood would have deepened later Sunday when the Times published another article impacting those in Trumpworld.

This time it was Cohen as the center of attention, with the newspaper revealing that federal authorities investigating whether Cohen had committed bank and tax fraud have zeroed in on loans obtained by taxi businesses that he and his family own. It added that any criminal charges against Cohen could be filed by the end of the month.

While Cohen is no longer Trump’s lawyer, he’s been a longtime ally of the president, and charges would have significant blowback against Cohen’s former boss.

Cover: President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Aug. 17, 2018, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Southampton, N.Y., for a fundraiser. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)