So in his escalating clashes with Beltway institutions, what we’re watching is not the “deep state” trying to reassert control over policy and bring a tribune of the people low. If so I would be more often on Trump’s side (as I welcomed Brexit and entertained the case for Marine Le Pen), because populism needs a seat at the table of power in the West, and the people who voted for our president do deserve a tribune.
But Trump is not that figure. As a populist he’s a paper tiger, too lazy to figure out what policies he should champion and too incompetent and self-absorbed to fight for them.
So he’s not being dogged by leaks and accusations because he’s trying to turn the Republican Party into a “worker’s party” (he isn’t), or because he’s throwing the money-changers out of the republic’s temples (don’t make me laugh), or because he’s taking steps to reduce America’s role as policeman of the world (none are evident).
No, he’s at war with the institutions that surround him because he behaves consistently erratically and inappropriately and dangerously, and perhaps criminally as well.
Or perhaps not: All of this may still not rise to the level of impeachable offenses. But the conservatives rising to his defense need to recognize that there is no elite “counterrevolution” here for them to resist, because there is no Trump revolution in the first place.
You don’t want to sell him out to the establishment; I get it. But open your eyes: He’s already been doing that to you.
There was a while there when I feared a Trump/Bannon consolidation of the populist right, but Trump is such a self-absorbed egotist and undisciplined loose cannon that Trump/x is impossible with any kind of x. It's hard to see how he lasts until the end of the year. Something is got to give, and if nothing else it might be his health. He's in so far over his head that the strain on him has got to take a toll on this 70 year old--both physically and mentally.
The idea that Trump was going to stand up to the establishment was only plausible if Steve Bannon got the upper hand in the White House. He made his play, but it's clear now that he was in over his head as well, and and the gig was up as soon as some in the media started referring to him as "Trump's Brain". That's something Trump fragile ego could never tolerate.
As far as Trump's troubles with the Deep State--he's brought that on himself, essential because he's a deeply, deeply foolish man. I dare say there's a constituency of people within the so-called Deep State that would have embraced him had he given them half a chance. But his ineptitude, arrogance, and truly astonishing ignorance have caused him to exceed my negative expectations for what I expected to be a blundering, chaotic mess.
But all in all, we should be grateful the man is such a blundering fool. It prevents the Right from taking advantage in a way they otherwise might, and now it's up to the forces of sanity in the Democratic Party--it has a presence there even if a minority one--to seize the opportunity being proffered.