In his five months on the job, Jeff Sessions has proven himself to be a mean-spirited attorney general, reigniting the failed war on drugs and indiscriminately cracking down on immigration violations.

It remains to be seen if he'll rival truly historic failures like John Mitchell—the only AG to serve a prison sentence, for his role in the Watergate scandal—but evidence is mounting that Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing about contacts with Russians during the campaign.

Still, I don't want him to quit.

President Donald Trump in a series of recent statements and tweets has strongly hinted he'd like Sessions to go. He told The New York Times last week he'd never have appointed him if he knew he was going to recuse himself on the Russia inquiry. According to Trump, it was “very unfair, and that's a mild word” that Sessions adhered to a basic legal ethics requirement.

On Monday, Trump tweeted, “So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?”

The fact that Trump spelled “beleaguered” correctly—this is after all a man who recently tweeted “W.H. council” and also “councel” for counsel, “unpresidented” for unprecedented, not to mention covfefe—is revealing.

He gave it some thought, maybe even looked up beleaguered—“besiege, trouble, harass,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Of course, if Sessions is beleaguered, Trump is the one doing most of the beleaguering these days.

When a reporter on Monday afternoon asked Trump point-blank if Sessions should resign, Trump theatrically rolled his eyes and did not answer. Talk about a vote of no-confidence.

Later in the day, when Trump addressed the Boy Scout Jamboree, Eagle Scout cabinet members Rick Perry and Ryan Zinke were in attendance—but not Eagle Scout Sessions. (Also absent: Eagle Scout Rex Tillerson, who CNN on Monday reported is considering resigning before the end of the year.)

Look. Sessions is Trump's appointee. If the president doesn't want him in his cabinet, then fire him. Own the decision—and the blowback, which will be sizeable.

But don't be all nasty and passive-aggressive, making faces and not inviting him to parties and trashing him on social media. That's what a 13-year-old girl would do. It's not befitting of a president.

So far, it's not working. At a press conference last week, Sessions said, “We love this job, we love this department,” (nice touch there with the royal “we”). He added that he would continue to serve as attorney general “so long as that is appropriate.”

Already, Ted Cruz and Rudy Giuliani have been mentioned as replacements.

But maybe Sessions will be Janet Reno to Trump's Bill Clinton instead: the AG who the president wishes would quit—but won't. Reno stayed on as attorney general for all eight years of Clinton's presidency.

“Perpetually tense” is how Naftali Bendavid writing for the Chicago Tribune in 1997 described Reno and Clinton's relationship. “By all accounts, the back-slapping president and the stolid attorney general have not warmed up to each other,” wrote Bendavid, an alum of Lit Daily affiliate Legal Times. Reno “seemed to be perceived in some quarters as almost anti-Clinton. Adding to this perception, Reno has repeatedly found herself investigating the president or those close to him.”

Not that it hurt Reno—she was reportedly Clinton's most popular cabinet member (though Will Ferrell's recurring skit on Saturday Night Live, “Janet Reno's Dance Party,” might have had something to do with it).

But there's a big difference between Reno and Sessions. Reno was Clinton's third choice for the job, after Zoe Baird and Judge Kimba Wood, and the president didn't know her prior to her nomination.

Sessions was Trump's first supporter in the U.S. Senate and stalwart campaign surrogate, unfailingly loyal to the president.

It's cliché to say that for Trump, loyalty is a one-way street. Still, you've got to wonder how Sessions feels about the president turning on him after his steadfast support. He has the thin lips and hard eyes of a man who knows how to hold a grudge.

If the AG doesn't knuckle under and resign, Trump may find Sessions will start to rely more on his own compass to steer the Justice Department.

As the country increasingly appears to be headed toward a constitutional crisis, a DOJ that's arms-length from the White House is—or should be—a bulwark.

Even if I personally disagree with just about every policy decision Jeff Sessions has made, I'd like to think he believes in the rule of law. If he's on the outs with Trump, it makes it that much easier to stand up to him, and to defend the Constitution.

Janet Reno would have done it.

Contact Jenna Greene at [email protected]. On Twitter @jgreenejenna.