Almost every week is a bad week for Donald Trump these days, but this week has brought developments that are, from my point of view, extremely gratifying, monumentally, roaringly, Wagnerianly bad for the former man. Now it looks somewhere between probable and certain that Trump will be staring down—not one, not two, but Three The impeachment—as well as at least one criminal trial, we learned this week—is coming in the middle of the presidential primary season.
I don’t want to speak too soon. The wheels of justice move slowly, and as far as those seeking the presidency are concerned, they can move very timidly. But with each passing week we are becoming better able to say that by running for and becoming President, Trump ended up going too far and made his biggest mistake ever. If you are a wealthy private citizen in this country, you can break the law all you want, short of things like actual murder, and the law can never catch up with you. But take a public office, and suddenly an entirely different set of laws apply to you, the scrutiny of your words and deeds—past and present—becomes white-hot, and the system treats your misdeeds as a mere failure. Pay your taxes takes it more seriously than ever. It might take a man who has become accustomed to ignoring the law over the course of 50 years — though in fairness, it might be a big reason why more white-collar criminals don’t run for president.
