The problem with all of these assaults on our democracy are not just in the things themselves. It is their cumulative effect. That effect is the steady erosion of any basis of accountability and the steady accretion of a strongman form of governing expectation. Every day he stays in office is a day of progress in this continuing abrasion. Trump is not the smart man he desperately insists he is, but you can be a blithering idiot and still pursue this strategy. It may even help.

On the other side of the erosion question is one thing only. Is Trump failing? This is also something Trump understands all too well, and accounts for his crazed inflation of his crowd size and invented historic victory claims. And his paranoia about people not being loyal and deferential enough. His progress, in fact his very survivability, rests on one thing: intimidation. His relentless wearing away of norms and persecution of enemies serve one goal: making people fearful enough not to cross him. If that fear erodes away, his game is up, and he knows it. This is the lesson of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Once he appears vulnerable, people who had been suffering in silent misery with their own personal doubts, fears and resignation are no longer afraid to name what they see. A dangerous fool whom they don’t want running their country. This is the moment when the stench of failure attaches.