The only way to prove you were Not Mad behind closed doors is to rant in public about how Calm you were behind closed doors. You may not be familiar with this credo, but it appears to be the operating principle of one Donald Trump, American president, who is having a very bad week but wants you to know that he is not in any way mired in a bout of explosive Rage. He's actually bathing in tranquility!

Wouldn't you be, having first failed in an attempt to block a congressional subpoena demanding your accounting firm turn over your financial records, then lost another case to stop the short list of banks willing to do business with you—Deutsche Bank and Capital One—from turning over more? The president's Treasury Secretary is flailing about trying to justify his own section of the Trumpian Stonewall, largely neglecting to explain during congressional testimony how his refusal to hand over The Tax Returns doesn't violate the plain text of the law. It increasingly appears that Trump's one-dimensional strategy to prevent the public from learning who's putting money in his pocket is not working. Meanwhile, the calls for impeachment are growing louder.

The results have not been pretty. The president met Wednesday with a delegation of Democratic congressional leaders helmed by Nancy Pelosi on infrastructure. But he reportedly walked out after three minutes having "lashed out" at Pelosi and declaring he would not work with Democrats until they stopped investigating him. He then walked into the Rose Garden to a podium, complete with signage, and addressed the waiting reporters who had been gathered there by his staff. He boiled about how Pelosi had suggested publicly that he was orchestrating a "cover-up" shortly before their meeting, which now looks more and more like a successful ploy from Pelosi to get the president to go intergalactic in front of the watching world. Also it's, you know, true.

In the aftermath, Pelosi stuck another knife in, suggesting Trump had thrown a "temper tantrum" in their meeting. This was too much for the President of the United States to bear.

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In a letter to her House colleagues, Nancy Pelosi said: “President Trump had a temper tantrum for us all to see.” This is not true. I was purposely very polite and calm, much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden. Can be easily proven. It is all such a lie! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

It's all such a lie! Oh, the humanity. While saying something "can be easily proven" is not actually proof, and the president was in no way calm in the Rose Garden, it doesn't ultimately matter. He is so easily baited into these things that he becomes such a dependable mark. No wonder Pelosi thinks she can cut him down without an impeachment proceeding.

But that wasn't all—or nearly enough. He returned to the topic early the next morning, insisting, again, that he is never one for Rage.

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I was extremely calm yesterday with my meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, knowing that they would say I was raging, which they always do, along with their partner, the Fake News Media. Well, so many stories about the meeting use the Rage narrative anyway - Fake & Corrupt Press! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2019

Anyone who has watched the president speak at one of his rallies is well aware of the president's relationship with Rage. Just this week, he started yelling about how his attorney general might prosecute his enemies for "treason" as the crowd hooted and hollered. You see, it's not all fun and games. As the vice tightens around him, the president is increasingly turning towards authoritarian maneuvers—attacks on the Constitution's separation of powers and the independent system of justice and the free press—to destroy democratic mechanisms that might be used to hold him accountable. He will bring it all down on his head and hope he can sneak out of the rubble somehow. There won't be a Calm thing about it.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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