Story highlights Jill Filipovic: Trump, allies deadening us to how much US democracy is being weakened

Stories make us want to bury our faces in our hands and mutter, "this cannot be happening"

Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and Nairobi, Kenya, and the author of the new book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) It seems that every other day there's a new story out that makes us want to bury our faces in our hands and mutter, "this cannot be happening."

President Trump's friend Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax Media -- has suggested that the Trump may now terminate Robert Mueller , the special counsel appointed to lead the FBI investigation into the Trump team's Russia ties.

Jill Filipovic

Never mind that there's no corroboration of Ruddy's statement and lots of reasons to think it would be political suicide for Trump to fire the widely respected Mueller, who's investigating whether Trump campaign officials were in collusion with the Russians. The mere fact that we can take seriously that this course of action might be contemplated by Trump is a sign of how far down the road we have come to the weakening of US democracy.

The biggest problem, of course, is Trump, who seems happy to mold himself into a brassier American version of Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un. But this is a problem enabled by the GOP and right-wing media, too.

Trump's sycophants are doing their part to lay the groundwork for such a stunning move. In a particularly North Korean touch -- or, depending on your perspective, one reminiscent of mandatory compliments teachers force their kindergartners to dole out -- Trump also convened members of his Cabinet around a big wooden table and so they could each say something nice about his presidency in front of the press. Trump himself started, declaring himself one of the most accomplished leaders the United States has ever seen. And then one by one, the adult men and women (although mostly men) sitting around him heaped praise on the President, deeming themselves "privileged" to have the "great honor" and "blessing" to serve him.

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