Charles Blow is correct here when he writes,
Donald Trump can feel the breath on the back of his neck.
...
There is clearly something there that he doesn’t want America to know, something damning and catastrophic. He will do anything to keep it from view, including bringing the government to its knees.
...
Trump’s worlds may well be about to collide and he will move heaven and earth to prevent that.
..
That truth, the part that he has kept shoved into the shadows, is his vulnerability. Trump clearly views full knowledge of whatever that truth is as mortally injurious to his own sense of repute and renown.
...
Charles Blow is wrong here:
If Trump has lied to the people who still support him about the most central parts of his character, not just months or years ago, but on a consistent basis, and if those lies can be proved by actual documentary evidence of some sort, the whole house of cards crumbles.
There is nothing Trump can ever say or do that will shake his support with his base base. Just ask them! Not too long ago I read that one of his supporters said if Trump admitted being in bed with the Russians he would not believe it.
Charles Blow is wrong here:
What happens from here will truly test this country. It will test the Constitution, our protocols and our conventions.
The country was tested on 11/8/16 and failed. The country formerly known as the United States ended that day.
Charles Blow is correct here:
Maybe the founders and the hundreds of years of politicians following them should have predicted that a person like Trump could ascend to the presidency, but they didn’t, so they didn’t build in sufficient constraints and strictures.
Correct:
Trump has spent a lifetime probing the regulations for weaknesses, testing the theory that under sufficient weight any bureaucracy can be broken.
He will not hesitate to apply what he has learned to his present predicament. If America must be damaged for him to escape unscathed, he will take that bargain without batting an eye.
And it is by no means clear that his cowardly Republican accomplices in Congress would do anything to prevent or punish him.
The country is in a perilous position.
Well, you know what I would say about that.
Correct here.
It is in the hands and under the thumb of a man now motivated by a primal survival instinct, a consuming egotism and a petrifying fear of ignominy.
At this point, nothing is beyond the possible, no matter how ill advised and how ultimately destructive. In Trump’s mind, I can only imagine, he has settled on a strategy in the case of his own administration’s Armageddon: If he’s going down, the whole system is going down with him.
Donald Trump can feel the breath on the back of his neck.
...
There is clearly something there that he doesn’t want America to know, something damning and catastrophic. He will do anything to keep it from view, including bringing the government to its knees.
...
Trump’s worlds may well be about to collide and he will move heaven and earth to prevent that.
..
That truth, the part that he has kept shoved into the shadows, is his vulnerability. Trump clearly views full knowledge of whatever that truth is as mortally injurious to his own sense of repute and renown.
...
Charles Blow is wrong here:
If Trump has lied to the people who still support him about the most central parts of his character, not just months or years ago, but on a consistent basis, and if those lies can be proved by actual documentary evidence of some sort, the whole house of cards crumbles.
There is nothing Trump can ever say or do that will shake his support with his base base. Just ask them! Not too long ago I read that one of his supporters said if Trump admitted being in bed with the Russians he would not believe it.
Charles Blow is wrong here:
What happens from here will truly test this country. It will test the Constitution, our protocols and our conventions.
The country was tested on 11/8/16 and failed. The country formerly known as the United States ended that day.
Charles Blow is correct here:
Maybe the founders and the hundreds of years of politicians following them should have predicted that a person like Trump could ascend to the presidency, but they didn’t, so they didn’t build in sufficient constraints and strictures.
Correct:
Trump has spent a lifetime probing the regulations for weaknesses, testing the theory that under sufficient weight any bureaucracy can be broken.
He will not hesitate to apply what he has learned to his present predicament. If America must be damaged for him to escape unscathed, he will take that bargain without batting an eye.
And it is by no means clear that his cowardly Republican accomplices in Congress would do anything to prevent or punish him.
The country is in a perilous position.
Well, you know what I would say about that.
Correct here.
It is in the hands and under the thumb of a man now motivated by a primal survival instinct, a consuming egotism and a petrifying fear of ignominy.
At this point, nothing is beyond the possible, no matter how ill advised and how ultimately destructive. In Trump’s mind, I can only imagine, he has settled on a strategy in the case of his own administration’s Armageddon: If he’s going down, the whole system is going down with him.
