A week after a House Committee investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign chose to give U.S. President Donald Trump a clean chit, Trump has fired former deputy-FBI chief Andrew McCabe and looks like he wants to fire the Special Prosecutor who is heading a separate Russia inquiry into his campaign.

He tweeted that the inquiry was unfair - and reiterated there had been "no collusion" between his election campaign and Russia. He added that it was dominated by "hardened Democrats" and supporters of his defeated opponent Hillary Clinton.

The president's comments came a day after his lawyer, John Dowd, said it was time for the special counsel's investigation to end. Initially Dowd said he was speaking for the president but later clarified he was "speaking for myself".

Trump also fired former FBI director James Comey last year who had begun to investigate if there was any support from Russia for the Trump Campaign. The latter firing led to the Mueller investigation being set up. Robert Mueller, is a highly regarded former head of the FBI, and a registered Republican. Donald Trump has increased the decibels of rhetoric and made a series of tweets regarding the Mueller probe, calling it unfair and a ‘witch hunt’ of his presidency.

The events – firing of Andrew McCabe, who Trump called biased due to McCabe’s wife’s connections with Hillary Clinton; and calling former FBI chief James Comey’s testimony to Congress as lies, many feel that Trump is preparing ground to now fire Mueller. He does have the power to do so as President, but elected leaders from the Republican and Democratic Party say firing Mueller would be  ‘crossing a red-line’.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, said it appeared the president's latest comments seemed to be preparing the ground for the firing of Mueller. "I don't know what the designs are on Mueller, but it seems to be building toward that, and I just hope it doesn't go there, because it can't. We can't in Congress accept that," he told CNN. "I'm just puzzled by why the White House is going so hard at this, other than that they're very afraid of what might come out." Another Republican leader from South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham warned that if Trump fired Mueller he would face grave consequences. "As I have said before, if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we're a rule of law nation," Graham said.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer accused Trump of trying to derail the investigation. "Our Republican colleagues, particularly the leadership, have an obligation to our country to stand up now and make it clear that firing Mueller is a red line for our democracy that cannot be crossed," the Democrat said in a statement.

What is obvious is that Trump’s rants are getting louder as the Mueller investigation brings more people who worked with Trump during his campaign, under his net. But last week, the investigation reached Trump’s doorstep as reports came that Mueller had subpoenaed documents from the Trump organization – including some that related to its business dealings with Russia.

It remains to be seen if Trump gives his volatile personality free rein and does end up firing Robert Mueller.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 19, 2018 12:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).