BAD PRESIDENT

In a TV interview a few days ago President Trump speculated about getting impeached. He predicted the stock market would crash and a lot of people would become poor as a result. But he wasn't worried.

How could they impeach him, he wanted to know, when he's doing a great job?

I'm pretty sure he wasn't being ironic. He actually thinks he's doing a great job. Sure, not a lot has gotten done in Congress, but that's their fault. Nothing to do with him. Buried, apparently, is the quaint notion the Great Negotiator was going to take Congress by the neck and wring from those nutty guys and gals a mountain of much needed legislation.

Forget about that: The president is doing fine, and he knows it.

Which is why he's perplexed by the preponderance of bad news coming from a
Google search of "Trump." The hell's going on? Surely he's a better president than that. Gotta be more of that damned Fake News!

Trump is getting mighty tired of this unpatriotic nonsense. Looks like it's time the press took the hint and mended their evil ways. Or else!

The president, like the rest of us, is a human being. As such, he knows what he knows and he can't be wrong.

Unlike most of us, he's in a position of power. He can make things happen to create a desired effect, to force into place what he thinks reality really is, to produce the America we actually live in, if it were portrayed honestly by the press.

With that in mind, he has a warning for social media: You're treading on dangerous ground. "You can't do that to people," he said.

(By "people" I think he means "me, Donald Trump.")

The new normal, already in progress: You can't report the truth about people if by doing so you make them look bad. Especially if the people are rich and powerful and vindictive as hell.

(No way can the president consider the possibility the press makes him look bad because he actually is bad. That would require a superhuman effort of self examination. And nobody wants to do that.)

So far, we've got the war of words. What's next? Shutting down newspapers? Censoring the Internet? Torching the First Amendment?

The problem is, Trump is not as blameless as he maintains. He very likely knew of the Trump Tower meeting ahead of time, even if he didn't attend either it or the strategy meeting before it—and he helped orchestrate the cover-up after the fact. He very likely suggested FBI director James Comey give a pass to Michael Flynn, then fired him when he wouldn't—and lied about it. And according to Michael Cohen, the president ordered his long-time fixer to pay off several problematical women, violating campaign finance laws in the process—and lied about it afterward.

This stuff is not likely to go away cleanly.

Trump is also worried about upcoming midterm elections. He told a gathering of evangelicals if the Democrats take control of Congress they're going to undo everything he's done, and do it violently. He used the term "violent" several times, and compared the Demos to Antifa, the anti-fascist movement.

(It seems Trump is always on the lookout to mitigate any threat to American fascists.)

What does he want evangelicals to do? Step up their prayers calling for the return of Jesus and the end of the world as we know it? (Before the Democrats can get their dirty-commie hands on it.)

Should the world continue to soldier on despite all fervent wishes, Trump and his pals are working hard to lock America into a new conservative attitude. A virtual crap-load of right-wing federal judges is heading to a judicial bench near you—young men who will be making decisions for this country long after Trump has waddled off the scene.

Not so easy for the Dems to walk that back.

Win or lose the midterms—not to mention 2020—Donald Trump may already have gobbled up the future of America.

Earlier this year I mentioned a Trump supporter's comment that any attempt to impeach the president—no matter what criminal outrage the guy perpetrates—would trigger a revolution in this country.

No question, that would absolutely be a disaster for America.

But here's the nightmare calculation we need to make: Would it be a worse disaster than keeping the man on the job? What if the idiot is just getting warmed up?

Maybe this could work: Impeach the president—and make it look like an accident.