It’s the contempt that’s so contemptible: President Trump’s contempt for the Constitution to which he swore an oath, for the F.B.I. that’s allegedly in “Tatters” (sic), for the majority of Americans (including his base) who will be worse off from a fat tax cut for the richest, for the shared wonder inspired by our public lands, for America’s allies, for the science that explains why it’s getting warmer, for due process, for truth, for informed debate, for the press, for the values anchored by liberty that the United States has attempted to represent to the world.

That’s a lot of contempt for one man. But it comes naturally to Trump. He has not given a moment of reflection to the office he occupies, or how its responsibilities may differ from those of running a real estate company. If bullying worked then, if stiffing contractors and trashing the truth worked then, why should they not work now?

Robert Mueller is why they may not work. Mueller, as the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, is interested in facts. On one side, the steady accumulation of facts and the flipping of Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, who was busy following instructions and trying to make nice to Russia. On the other side, the increasingly frenzied and fantastical early-morning tweets of a president who wakes up every day to Moscow messing with his mind. Trump flails. He can’t believe this is happening.

In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, there are no checks and balances. It’s open season for authoritarian make-believe. In the United States, 10 months of Trump notwithstanding, it’s not so easy to get away with a daily truth heist.