Donald Trump is locked and loaded, as he would want it written, and America’s bleeding democracy is in his crosshairs. The clock is ticking.

It is now becoming clear what desperate steps Trump is preparing to take to stop the Robert Mueller investigation and salvage his failing presidency. And it is now becoming apparent that he will soon try to shut down the Mueller probe entirely.

For the United States, on the brink of a historical constitutional crisis, the consequences will be profound. Such an assault on America’s democracy may outdo Watergate in terms of enduring lethal damage.

In a chaotic, yearlong presidency that never ceases to astound, this past week has been a turning point. But at least we can now see what shape Trump’s catastrophic game plan is taking.

Like Richard Nixon in Watergate, Trump is methodically getting rid of the key U.S. Justice Department and FBI people who threaten him.

This is resembling a slow-motion replay of Nixon’s infamous 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” in which he desperately tried to shut down the investigation that ultimately doomed his presidency. In that drama, largely due to principled opposition from his own Republican party, Nixon failed in his efforts — and the country recovered.

But no such happy ending is certain here.

As the Mueller probe creeps closer to the Oval Office, an alarmed Trump is aggressively quickening his pace as a supine Republican Congress largely hides under the bed.

This week, Trump showed how bitterly he is now at war with the FBI and the Justice Department — determined to discredit the Mueller investigation as partisan and bogus by defaming the law enforcement agencies it relies on.

And one-by-one, Trump is trying to eliminate their leadership.

First, it was FBI director James Comey, the man who headed the investigation into Trump’s Russia ties a year ago. He was fired by the president last May after refusing to pledge loyalty to Trump.

A month later, according to The New York Times, Trump tried to fire Mueller but held off — for the time being — after his White House counsel, Don McGahn, threatened to resign. And last Monday, after unrelenting criticism from Trump, deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe announced his sudden departure.

Next on Trump’s hit list are certain to be the two remaining officials with integrity who stand between Trump and Mueller: deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who now oversees Mueller’s probe, and FBI director Christopher Wray, who succeeded Comey after he was fired.

The president realizes that he needs to get rid of them first in order to get at Mueller, and is aware of the risks ahead of him if he doesn’t act.

Trump knows what Mueller must now know — that Trump is not only guilty of obstruction of justice and collusion with the Russians, but even more damning, his suspect business empire has been knee-deep in illegal money-laundering schemes with Russian oligarchs and mobsters for years.

Beyond sexual blackmail the Russians may very well have on Trump — kompromat as it’s known in Russian intelligence circles — what else would explain why America’s president has been so beholden to Russia’s Vladimir Putin?

It won’t be long before Trump makes his next move.

He knows that the longer he waits, the more damning will be the criminal case that Mueller and his team are building against Trump and his family. And at least now — until the Democrats win next November’s midterm elections — he undoubtedly believes that a largely passive Republican Congress will let him have his way.

A column that I wrote in August — titled “We now know how the Trump presidency will end. Let’s hope we survive” — was picked up by several American websites and garnered thousands of responses.

In the column, I predicted what Trump would likely do as a last resort if he feels his presidency is threatened: “His only remaining hope will be a 9/11-scale disaster or contrived war that he can exploit.”

There is so much noise and distraction emanating from the Trump White House that it is easy not to hear certain things.

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But if we listen closely, we can hear the quiet drumbeats of war in the halls of Washington regarding the desirability of military conflict with a nuclear-armed North Korea and, separately, with Iran.

In the perilous days ahead, we shall soon learn whether anyone in America is listening.

Tony Burman is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com.

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