Illustration: Andrew Dyson

The most recent – and incendiary – report that Trump had asked Comey to drop the investigation into his former national security adviser, Mike Flynn, only underscores this. No one alive to the gross malfeasance of such a request would dare do it directly. It would surely be a more cunning manoeuvre, done subtly and deniably. And while it is true the White House is denying it, it is a hell of a thing to end up in the memo of an FBI director famous for documenting controversial exchanges since his time working with the George W. Bush administration. Especially since, if that memo exists, it seems eminently discoverable by Congress.

The point here is that we might not be looking at a president who fulfils the worst fears of those who watched his campaign aghast, and who had him pinned as a dictator in waiting. It's entirely possible Trump's quasi-dictatorial impulses are by accident. He hasn't, for instance, even bothered filling most of the government positions he's authorised to fill. He shows apparently little interest in dominating the apparatus of the state. He seems vastly more interested in identifying whoever presents a difficulty, and either abusing or evicting them. So there's lots of talk of "so-called judges" who ruled against Trump's Muslim ban, and a string of clunky firings. But there's no systematic takeover of the American government. Not yet, anyway.

I suppose that's a relief of sorts. But it points to a serious crisis now brewing in American democracy. This is a country ruled by a man who doesn't seem to grasp its most foundational civic tenets; who doesn't understand the importance of independent law enforcement bodies, or judiciaries, or even of the need for restraints on presidential power, just as he seems not to understand the point of a free media. It's like he doesn't grasp the concepts of conflicts of interest, or obstructions of justice. In Trump's hands, these are content-free abstractions: annoyances to be sidestepped rather than sacred limits to be observed, even if grudgingly.

That doesn't mean he can escape these things. The courts will still check his power, irrespective of whether or not he understands or respects why. He's unlikely to be able to quash FBI investigations. The press will continue to hold him to account, and indeed seems newly invigorated by this presidency, which has made it more relevant than ever. The Washington Post's story on the classified information revealed to Russia broke its own record this week for most online readers of a story per second.