President Trump, Melting Under Criticism

After all, he so clearly lacks the toughness of George Washington, who once privately observed that his critics’ “arrows … never can reach the most vulnerable part of me.” He lacks the confidence of Dwight Eisenhower, who said, when asked if he thought his press coverage was fair, “Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see what a reporter could do much to a president, do you?”

.. Mr. Trump may be a more tender soul, or less resilient. In any case, he can’t seem to take the heat.

.. The big question for all of us is whether with his foot-stamping and his vulgarity Mr. Trump, in defiance of all his predecessors, is creating a new model for future presidential behavior. Can the etiquette of professional wrestling and reality television truly pass as acceptable for the Oval Office?

Russell Moore, Baptist Leader Who Shunned Trump, Splits His Church

Head of denomination’s public-policy arm triggered a backlash by criticizing the candidate’s supporters; no access to White House

  Mr. Moore, 45 years old, is at the center of a generational struggle over the denomination’s future. The outcome could determine whether Southern Baptists continue to be a leading conservative voice in cultural disputes over abortion and gay rights—and whether evangelical Christians remain a reliably Republican voting bloc.
.. His approach won him support among a younger, more racially diverse generation of evangelicals who are more suspicious than their parents of political parties.
It also led to a backlash from Southern Baptists who helped build the denomination into a political force within the Republican Party. Many of them saw Mr. Trump, despite his three marriages and ties to the casino industry, as the only realistic hope for the socially conservative agenda they have been pushing for decades.
.. But Mr. Moore has no access to Mr. Trump, fueling questions about how effectively he can do his job.
.. Mr. Moore’s predecessor, Richard Land, played a leading role in that denominational battle. As head of the public-policy arm, Mr. Land had turned the Southern Baptist Convention into a conservative political juggernaut. He helped push the Republican Party to the right on issues such as abortion and became a regular in the George W. Bush White House.
.. “The fact that he was targeted was very chilling,” Mr. McKissic said. “It sends the signal that anybody who speaks a word that is not in line with traditional Southern Baptist, Republican thought will face opposition, to the extent that their jobs will be threatened.”
.. In a denomination that likes to settle disputes quietly, some were rankled that he criticized Trump supporters on national television and didn’t speak to them directly.
.. “I’d have gone to a Jack Graham” before publicly criticizing Trump supporters like him, said Jay Strack, president of Student Leadership University and member of Mr. Trump’s evangelical advisory board

James Comey and Our Own Tin-Pot Despot, Donald Trump

Trump’s behavior is reminiscent of what tin-pot despots do. I know, for I’ve covered the overthrow of more than I can count.

.. What comes through is a persistent effort by Trump to interfere with the legal system. There’s a consistent pattern: Trump’s contempt for the system of laws that, incredibly, he now presides over.

.. The latest revelation is that Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one supplier of American voting software and tried to compromise the computers of more than 100 local voting officials.

.. “Watergate pales really, in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now,” said Clapper, a former lieutenant general with a long career in intelligence under Republican and Democratic presidents alike. He added: “I am very concerned about the assault on our institutions coming from both an external source — read Russia — and an internal source — the president himself.”

.. Trump has systematically attacked the institutions of American life that he sees as impediments. He denounced judges and the courts. He has attacked journalists as “the enemy of the people,” .. He has publicly savaged Democrats and Republicans who stand up to him.

.. Skimming money meant for kids with cancer? This is cartoonlike. (The family hasn’t responded in detail, although Eric did say that, to him, the critics are “not even people.” He lamented that “morality’s just gone.”)

.. the fundamental question is not just whether the president broke a particular law regarding obstruction of justice, but also whether he is systematically assaulting the rule of law that makes us free.