Things are looking bad for President Trump, and it’s making me scared. Now that Republicans have their tax cuts, they don’t need Trump as badly. And Robert Mueller flipped Michael Flynn, threatening Trump’s family and maybe the Orange Don himself. If push comes to shove, and Trump is really the psychopath he appears to be, we’re looking at trouble.

First, Republicans aren’t generally stupid, or at least they’re not as stupid as they pretend. They know the Trump presidency is a dumpster-fire. They put up with it because they want his vote on their party-line legislation because he’s gutting the federal government (a generational Republican goal), and for his rubber-stamp judicial nominees.

These days, courting disaster is the official Republican policy.  This is the party actively promoting a child molester for office because, they say, he’s the best man for the office, and the only true family values candidate. 

Ha! No, of course not. They openly admit they want this unthinkably evil man to be elected to their party because he’ll probably vote the party line. From local pols to national figures, to the President, that’s their story. The GOP is morally flexible that way.

The Republican tax cut bill – “H.R. 1” – was the very first bill of the House session. It was was the party’s primary, overriding goal. It was what their donors wanted so badly they had stopped donating money.  When that was the one thing the donors focused on, it was the only issue Republicans could think about.

Now that Republicans have their miserable tax cut, they can call that part done.  I’m sure the campaign spigots have opened again. And with the pressure off, it’s possible Republicans will begin pushing back on the worst Trumpian nonsense.

Trump can’t tolerate the slightest dissent. I don’t mean he doesn’t like it; he can’t tolerate it. Trump is broken to his core.

So what will Trump do, if things begin to go south? What happens when Mueller indicts Jared, or Republicans start suggests that Trump should stop being a sexual predator?

Trump usually starts with a cultural distraction, of course. He’ll call his critics un-American, soft on crime, weak on the border, terrible on the military and our Vets, they’re raising your taxes, and they’ll take away your guns.

I don’t expect Mueller to be impressed or intimidated. Even a few Republicans might find their morals and a spare backbone, now that it doesn’t matter as much.

So what will Trump do, if — when — he can’t intimidate people into agreeing with him and praising him endlessly? How far might he sink? Trump is under severe pressure already, and he simply doesn’t deal with it. His aides leaked stories to the press about arbitrary blaming and screaming, and that’s when the stakes were much lower.

Trump won’t just stop at a certain point. He isn’t rational that way. Once he starts fighting back, he won’t have limits. He sees criticism as death, and everything else — no matter how bad we think it is — is still better than that. And Trump won’t stop because we want him to, or because it’s self-destructive, or because he’s breaking our country. He can’t stop.

So it’s up to us, but we’ve never had anyone as non-rational as this before now. We’re not set up for it, legally, rationally, or emotionally. We haven’t worked out where the boundaries should be. We’ve never had to. And so far, we base our actions on the assumption that criticism will eventually push anyone to act differently.

Remember: Trump doesn’t respond to pressure rationally. He doubles down, pushing the opposite way. He routinely denies reality. Question him and he only hardens. Maybe he was that way before, but he’s certainly gotten worse since taking office. And does anyone think he’s getting better?

I worry that we’ll have to deal with an insane President, and we’re just not ready. We like to think that we’ll act well if, say, Trump strikes North Korea preemptively, or declares war on Iran. But when Trump does smaller things, like dissolving the Inspectors General or redirecting the CIA along political lines? He’s already dismantling the State Department and stacking the courts, and we don’t make a fuss.

We’re not ready for what’s coming.

Update (2020-01-04): I came back to this post after Trump ordered a drone strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, another illegal act of war. While I underestimated the (apparently nonexistent) Republican moral fiber, the rest of this has held up well. We always knew what Trump was like. We can’t pretend to be surprised.