The man now overseeing 245 million acres owned by every American citizen is a mad-dog opponent of the very idea of shared space in the great outdoors. He has spent his professional life chipping away — in court, in public forums, in statehouses — at one of the most cherished of American birthrights.

It’s easy to overlook the latest villain from this White House because the pipeline from hell just keeps churning them out. At the top, the occupant of the Oval Office never stops debasing his office: the racism, the nut-job conspiracy theories, the thumbs-up pictures with newly orphaned babies — and that was just during the last week or so.

But behind the tragicomedy of this presidency, some laser-focused opportunists have been cleaning up. Opponents of public health and safety, of clean water, open space and a chemical-free food chain have never had a better chance to run the show .

This week, it was a rollback of the Endangered Species Act, the most powerful environmental law in history, a statutory savior of bald eagles, grizzly bears and countless other vital links in the web of life. Could anything be more Trumpian than going after the law that saved the national bird?

Weakening the Endangered Species Act by executive fiat is illegal on the face of it, but the law has never stopped this administration cold in its tracks. While the courts sort it out, the natural world slips further into peril. In May, a United Nations report found that one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction. And for those of you who think you can take refuge in one of the new gilded bunkers built for the rich and apocalyptic, this report had direct implications for human survival as well.