High Drama! Barr lashes out at Trump! Trump tweets furiously back. Extra! Extra!
Of course it's all nonsense, staged for effect.
Trump knows Barr will do his bidding without being asked directly and if any direction is required a public statement in which he provides guidance will avowing never to provide guidance will suffice.
Barr realized that his politically motivated meddling in the sentencing of Roger Stone had created the impression, if it were not already firmly there, of his being a lacky of Trumps, willing to bend the rules for his boss. And that was going to make his job at the DOJ -- protecting Trump -- harder. So he had to appear to chartise Trump to fix the problem internally and counter the perception that he and Trump were interested in ends (Trumps), never mind the means.
What better way than to orchestrate a phoney bust-up that the media would rush to cover? Which is just what they did. Barr emerges as a hero, the only Trump appointee to publicly stand up to his boss. Trump reiterates his "right" to do whatever he wants, and Trump's buddy, Stone, gets his sentence reduction.
But none of it is real. Trump knows exactly where Barr stands, that is to day firmly in his corner, exactly the AG he always wanted. Barr know Trump knows where he stands so he can get away with being critical without fear of being fired and humiliated on camera and Twitter.
What a glorious 24 hours of the news cycle.
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