Now the city is leaving its bruising mark on him, with the same astonishing swiftness that has been a hallmark of his lightning-strike political career.
.. all meant to disrupt American politics as usual.
.. Ten days of shocks, kicking off with Mr. Trump’s surprise ouster of James B. Comey .. have left the West Wing reeling.
.. dread of “5 o’clock,” marking the arrival of the daily dump of damaging leaks or fresh reports of staff infighting.
.. It is as if some unseen adversary has copied Mr. Trump’s own velocity and ferocity in an attempt to destroy him
.. Sources are shuttling all kinds of information about Mr. Trump to reporters at a pace the White House cannot match.
.. “Washington feels like a kiddie soccer game — tons of frenzy but no strategy,” said Senator Ben Sasse
.. members of Mr. Trump’s team are hoping to slow the tempo set by the president and his hard-charging chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon.
They have suggested that he calm down, spend less time on Twitter, and avoid making decisions too quickly.
.. Brian Ott, a Texas Tech professor who has analyzed Mr. Trump’s use of social media, said: “The velocity at which this is happening right now is absolutely unprecedented. News is breaking so fast the stories are stepping on each other.”
The guardrails can’t contain Trump
Donald Trump’s character — volatile, impulsive, often self-destructive — had not changed since the campaign. But it seemed as if the guardrails of our democracy— Congress, the courts, the states, the media, the Cabinet — were keeping things within bounds.
Then came the past 10 days. The country is now caught in the internal maelstrom that is the mind of Donald Trump. We are in the realm of the id. Chaos reigns. No guardrails can hold.
.. Layers of falsehoods giving the impression of an elaborate coverup — in the absence of a crime.
.. Trump insists there’s no there there, but acts as if the there is everywhere.
.. Trump had three top officials come out and declare the disclosure story false. The next morning, Trump tweeted he was entirely within his rights to reveal what he revealed, thereby verifying the truth of the story.
.. The White House hurriedly issued a statement denying the story. The statement was unsigned.
.. this would be seen by millions as an establishment usurpation to get rid of a disruptive outsider. It would be the most destabilizing event in American political history
Aids Urge Trump to Tweet and Speak Cautiously
Aides are now urging Trump to tweet and speak cautiously. “I think he actually understands what a mess this is,” one person said. “He has lawyers telling him nonstop what the stakes are here.”
When Will Republicans Stand Up to Trump?
In office less than four months, Mr. Trump has already undermined the rule of law in myriad small ways.
He allowed his daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House in arguable violation of an anti-nepotism statute.
- He did not divest himself of his business holdings and
- did not release his tax returns.
- His sons have continued pursuing deals with jillionaires closely linked to unsavory foreign regimes.
- He and his daughter have accepted valuable trademark protections from China.
- His son-in-law’s family sought to trade on their connections to sell American citizenship to rich Chinese.
.. The president made clear his intent to shut down the investigation on Monday when he tweeted, “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”
.. Mr. Trump himself now links his decision to fire Mr. Comey to his conviction that “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.”