The Washington Post - the President Is Irrational

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin sums up Trump's terrible week.

There are two problems coming together at once. First, the president is blabbing about actions (real or not) that would constitute abuse of power, if not obstruction of justice. It is coming from his mouth. He does not even have the excuse of “fake news.” Second, because the Comey firing sent events spinning out of control, the president now appears to be irrational, if not ill. No one in control of his emotions or taking counsel from sober advisers would behave as he is.

And, it seems he still has the nuclear launch codes.

The Globe & Mail, meanwhile, argues that Trump has brought Congressional Republicans to a constitutional fork in the road. They must either choose to uphold America's democracy, or what remains of it, or opt for something else, something darker.


Republicans will play a crucial role. Some lawmakers have voiced misgivings about Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Comey, but very few have called for bolstering the Russia investigation.

Mr. Trump’s popularity among the party’s core voters remains considerable, giving lawmakers little electoral incentive to distance themselves from the President. Behind the Republican united front, however, discomfort is growing.

In a single week, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey, linked the dismissal to the continuing Russia investigation, issued a threat to the former FBI director over leaks to the press and alluded to the possibility that the President’s conversations were being recorded.

For some political scientists and historians, the situation represents not so much a crisis but an inflexion point: a moment that will either be remembered for the way lawmakers and the public reasserted clear boundaries on presidential behaviour, or as the time when those boundaries began to erode in important ways.