A mistake we may not survive

….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

When you need to claim stability and intelligence in reaction to criticism, you are neither stable nor intelligent. President Trump has obviously lent credibility to Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury. His petulant and egotistical reactions to the book’s criticism demonstrate that he is unable and unwilling to do the hard work of controlling his impulses and gaining the understanding a president requires. No one should be surprised: this has been obvious for some time.

White House aide Stephen Miller offered a determined defense of Trump against Steve Bannon’s allegations in the Wolff book this morning on CNN:

Notable is that Miller never denies explicitly that one or more of the Russians met with Trump, which is the question asked at the start. That is far more important than the controversy that has erupted about how Jake Tapper ended the interview. It seems the President’s number one surrogate was told to stick with the claim that the whole book is made up, rather than explicitly rebut one of the most inflammatory suggestions in it. If Trump did in fact meet with the Russians, that would end any credibility his claim of “no collusion” still has.

While the Washington commentariat has written off the Wolff book as not likely to affect Trump’s base or cause the Republican majority in both Houses of Congress to back off their loyalty to him, I think Trump is fatally compromised. A candidate for president who was unable to constrain his campaign officials and his son from meeting with Russian intelligence agents offering help during the campaign, and who may himself have met with them, should not be sitting in the Oval Office, quite apart from his unsuitable temperament. We should, of course, not forget that candidate Trump appealed publicly for Russian help with Hillary Clinton’s emails, so in that sense collusion is obvious.

Our very stable genius has gotten himself into a deep hole. I don’t really see how he will climb out. But the American political system is for the moment unable to do what is necessary: forcing him to step aside or be replaced, either via impeachment or the 25th Amendment. As long as he lasts, he will be doing damage to America’s standing in the world. His domestic weakness will be reflected one way or another in foreign policy, and his unpredictability, which UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has been lauding, will cause both adversaries and friends to hedge.

Only an unstable dummy would not change course. But that’s what we’ve got. America has survived many mistakes. It may not survive this one.