This is the leading article from this week’s issue of The Spectator – out tomorrow.
Donald Trump has often wrong-footed the media. In last year’s election his campaign seemed to be always on the verge of falling apart, but it didn’t. Candidate Trump was endlessly engulfed by crisis. The media said he could not win, but he did.
It’s tempting to think that the Trump presidency fits the same pattern; that all the chaos in the White House, reports of the horrifying incompetence of his administration and his dangerously erratic behaviour are exaggerated: fake news, as he would say. But it doesn’t. Just four months in, the Trump presidency is starting to look unviable.
Trump’s greatest problem is himself. He seems determined to plunge into scandal. The allegations against him are grave and mounting. In the last few days, it has emerged that he spilled classified ‘codeword’ intelligence to the Russian government just to show off; that he urged FBI director James Comey to abandon an investigation against former national security adviser Mike Flynn because Flynn is a ‘good guy’; and that he fired Comey for not helping him cover up his links to Russia.
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