Trumps Impotent Rage

http://prospect.org/article/trumps-impotent-rage

Trump’s Impotent Rage
Robert Kuttner
April 17, 2018
The window for firing Rosenstein or Mueller, and getting away with it, has closed.

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Even without Mueller, the investigation fueled by everything that Mueller has already unearthed would live on, whether via the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, Congress, the Justice Department, or any of several state attorneys general. A president with broad political support might have illusions of quashing all such investigations, but Trump lacks the political support, and firing Rosenstein and Mueller would further erode what remains of his political backing, even among Republicans.

This also deepens a long-deferred crisis for the Republican Party. Until now, Republicans who are alarmed by Trump have been willing to go along with him because he has enabled them to enact longstanding ideological goals such as a tax cuts for the rich and massive deregulation of industry.

But with Trump flirting with placing himself above the law, Republicans are not only in a moral bind, but in a political bind. Part of their base will defend Trump no matter what, but many Republican leaders and voters consider firing Rosenstein and then Mueller to be a bright red line that Trump must not cross.
If he fires Rosenstein and Mueller, he hastens his own downfall. If he lets things play out, the waters keep rising and soon more details will come out one way or another—which will also hasten his demise.

So Trump is damned either way. If he fires Rosenstein and Mueller, he hastens his own downfall. If he lets things play out, the waters keep rising and soon more details will come out one way or another—which will also hasten his demise.

Impeachment is not yet explicitly on the political agenda, but it soon will be. Some Republicans have used the threat of impeachment as a political tactic to rally the hardcore Trump base. The problem is that even though Trump’s basic approval ratings still hover around 40 percent, only about half of that support is so hardcore that it will stick with Trump no matter what he does and no matter what details come out.

Steve Bannon is the gift that keeps on giving—to Democrats. Moreover, Bannon and Trump are right about one thing. The “deep state”—the layers of federalism, the separation of powers, the basic integrity of courts—are not going away. Trump can’t take over them all.

Trump’s impotent rage is a sign that he’s cornered, and he knows it.