Just when we think there is no deeper sewer into which America’s corrupt political system can descend, we finally see the first promising signs of resistance and redemption emerging from the debris.

And for that, we can thank 19-year-old Florida high school senior Emma Gonzalez and her teenage friends, as well as U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigative team.

Because of them, this has actually been an inspiring and hopeful seven days — perhaps even historic — in spite of the non-stop drama that keeps swirling around the Trump presidency.

For the Trump administration, that drama is only deepening as it tries to respond to two recent epic events. One is the horrific Valentine’s Day massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school, and the other is the explosive new indictment announced by the special counsel investigating Trump and his team.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the aftermath from these developments pose potential danger to the Trump presidency.

In recent days, there have been remarkable scenes in response to the devastating Florida school shooting that left 17 dead. Led by the surviving students, there have been emotional meetings and rallies urging stricter gun safety laws.

At one rally, a student organizer — Emma Gonzalez — wiped away tears and said: “If all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see.”

At another nationally televised town hall attended by thousands of Florida students, Sen. Marco Rubio and a leader of the National Rifle Association were jeered for refusing to support new gun control measures.

As Gonzalez and her friends must now realize, there is no prospect for any meaningful gun control reform to be enacted by a Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress.

In fact, on Thursday, President Trump repeated his support of an NRA proposal that some teachers should be armed as a deterrent for school shootings, praising the NRA leadership as “Great American patriots.”

In spite of an accelerating pattern of school shootings and other gun violence — on average, two dozen children are shot every day in the U.S. — Republican politicians have consistently blocked any gun safety reform even though public opinion polls consistently indicate that most Americans favour this.

The fact is that the NRA, as America’s gun lobby, effectively “owns” the Republican Party. In the last election, the NRA spent $14.5 million (U.S.) in campaign ads for Republican candidates, with most of it going to Trump, while spending $34.5 million in ads against Democrats.

But it is politically where the Republicans — and the NRA — are at risk. The momentum that is building among many American young people against the NRA could easily become an important political issue. By next year, the millennial voting population in the U.S. — those under the age of 35 — is expected to exceed the baby-boomer population for the first time.

Since assuming office, Trump and the Republicans have alienated women, immigrants, Muslims, Asians, Latinos and African Americans. It is not beyond their ability to turn off potential young voters as well.

On the other major development in recent days — the new Russian indictments unveiled by Robert Mueller — the Trump administration also clearly sees the danger. Last weekend, after Mueller’s announcement, an agitated Trump responded with an angry, barely coherent storm of tweets that even included Oprah Winfrey as one of his targets.

Mueller’s charges were aimed at 13 Russians and three companies for trying to subvert the 2016 election and bolster the Trump campaign. It was a breathtaking 37-page indictment outlining precisely how the Russians manipulated American democracy.

Apart from demolishing Trump’s earlier claims that alleged Russian interference in the election was a “hoax,” it seemed to set the scene for later indictments that will implicate Americans as well, and quite likely Trump’s team.

There may have been another reason why Trump reacted to the indictment with such fury last weekend. With Mueller providing so much detail, it will make any future move by Trump to get rid of him more difficult to justify publicly.

Although seemingly unrelated, these two events — the high school massacre and the Mueller indictment of the Russians — found themselves intertwined in an ominous way.

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One hour after the Florida school shooting, Twitter accounts with links to Russia released hundreds of posts spreading misinformation and confusion in the U.S. gun control debate.

President Trump, for his part, remained silent.

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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