So what are the chances that the Madman's voiced concerns about Flynn were mere altruism?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

That he only raised the issue with Comey because he just hated to see Flynn, his good good friend, endure such an ordeal of suspicion?

I say next to nil. Trump's MO as long as he's lived has only been about himself and no one else. He'd sell his mom out if he'd felt he needed to. Trump didn't give a single shit about Michael Flynn.

Which means to me he knew Flynn knew things he didn't want to bring up to Comey.

[Madam45for2923]

1. Yep! Flynn has the goods on Donald. Flynn seemed to be a key component of the whole disgusting

corrupt enterprise.

[VOX]

2. Zip. Trump and altruism do not exist in the same set.

You will never find those two units together aligned in a single purpose (altruism in particular).

Trump is looking out for Trump. If he asked Comey to drop the Flynn-crap, then Trump was trying (in vain) to cover his own ever-widening, big-screen ass with a tablecloth.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Trump didn't know Flynn before the campaign - they first met

in August of 2015, after Trump announced his candidacy; and he became an informal policy advisor to the campaign in February of 2016. So it's not like they were old friends from 'way back. Anyhow, it doesn't seem like Trump has any actual friends, and it's evident that he doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself and never has. So, the obvious conclusion is that his support for Flynn has nothing to do with an altruistic impulse to help him. Flynn knows something, or is involved in something with Trump, that Trump doesn't want to become known.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

5. Which then invites the question that if Trump didn't care about Flynn...

...and he himself had done nothing wrong and didn't think he'd be dragged into an investigation by Comey, why didn't he just sell Flynn down the river? I mean, if he really thought no one would bring him in to the investigation, why just not wait it out thinking Comey would ultimately publicly exculpate him? Why obstruct an investigation of someone you couldn't care less about?

No, no, no. Trump was acting with a guilty mind. This proves it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Exactly. Trump never hesitates to throw people under the bus

when he no longer needs them or if they displease him. The only reasonable explanation for his almost desperate defense of Flynn is that he doesn't want Flynn to talk. And whatever it is that Flynn knows must be something spectacularly bad. He had to fire him for the sake of appearances, but doubtless he told Flynn he'd do whatever he could to protect him from legal and political consequences as long as Flynn promised to keep his mouth shut.

[MedusaX]

4. *45 realized that Flynn was the equivalent of a loose thread that, if pulled, would unravel the

Whole ugly sweater...

That's why he waited until the very last possible moment to get rid of Flynn ...
He was trying to figure out how to secure the thread...

[Phoenix61]

6. Three chances

Fat, slim, and none.