The intensity of Trump’s frenzy underscores the peril in which the president now finds himself. Beyond the indictments unsealed this morning, Trump does not know what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has uncovered; which witnesses are flippable; what financial documents have revealed about the Trump business empire; and whether, for example, Mueller finds support for an obstruction of justice charge from Trump’s own public dissembling (e.g., hinting at non-existent tapes of former FBI director James B. Comey). For someone who insists on holding all the cards and intimidating others, Trump finds himself in a uniquely powerless position.
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It should surprise no one that congressional Republicans, who have demonstrated their spinelessness again and again, are silent. They’ve got themselves fixated on tax reform, which they irrationally conclude will be imperiled if they try to head off Trump from doing something catastrophic with regard to Mueller or pardons. (Trump needs tax reform as much as they do so he’s not going to block it, for goodness sake, if they speak up to prevent a constitutional crisis.) We will see what else Mueller has in store for us, but if Trump is this hysterical now, one wonders what he’ll be like if a stream of indictments relating to the campaign and/or obstruction of justice begins.
