We are in the midst of several overlapping crises. The United States is clearly unprepared for coronavirus, which is rapidly spreading. The economy is buckling under the strain: The long bull market is over, and a recession seems inevitable. And all of this is being exacerbated by the unending political crisis that is the Trump presidency. Everything that the president has said and done has reeked of desperation and has had the opposite of its intended effect: People are panicking, the economy is tanking, and there is little faith that Trump is capable of managing the situation.



This has, not without reason, led many to conclude that this is the crisis that will finally do Trump in. A massive global shockwave is on the verge of overwhelming our craven and incompetent president and sweeping him from power. On Sunday, CNN’s Chris Cillizza mused that coronavirus may very well be “Trump’s Katrina,” writing, “Moments like this one—when the entire country is looking to its President for leadership, stability and, most importantly, facts—are a high-wire act for an administration. Fall down on the job here, and there may be no recovery.” In The Atlantic, David Frum argued that Trump will undoubtedly be held responsible for his administration’s myriad failings: “He owns responsibility for those things. He cannot escape it, and he will not escape it.”



The idea that Trump is a kind of political Icarus, doomed to fall, is integral to the way many in the media perceive him. Predictions of his demise have dogged Trump from the very start of his political career. These predictions involve the American people waking up from their stupor to finally see the light. And yet, despite being exposed over and over, Trump is still here. In fact, just before falling down on the job yet again, he was arguably as popular as he had ever been. This moment may very well spell the end of the Trump presidency, but recent history should give the prophets of Trump’s downfall pause.



Throughout the 2016 election, pundits consistently predicted that Trump was finished. They did so after his racist announcement that all Mexicans are “rapists.” After he trashed John McCain and George W. Bush. After he made misogynistic comments about then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly. After he responded to terror attacks by demanding that America ban Muslims and “bomb the shit” out of ISIS. Trump easily glided to the nomination—and then narrowly won an election nearly everyone in the media was certain he would lose.



Trump’s presidency has also been beset with predictions of imminent collapse. They followed practically every twist and turn of the Russia investigation, from revelations that Trump had instructed campaign officials to make contact with Russian intelligence to the firing of James Comey. When Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden—leading House Democrats to, at long last, impeach him—the soothsayers came out again. As recently as January, people were declaring that we had finally reached the point of no return, with Trump blundering his way into a disastrous war with Iran.