The revelations in Bob Woodward's new book about the snake-pit that is Camp Runamuck on Pennsylvania Avenue are frightening beyond the sheer terror that grips us all that an apparently crazy person has the nuclear codes. This involves the steps taken by unelected staffers to keep the crazy person from blowing up the world. From The New York Times:

In another episode, Gary D. Cohn, the former chief economic adviser to Mr. Trump, “stole” a letter from Mr. Trump’s desk that the president had planned to sign, withdrawing the United States from a trade deal with South Korea. Mr. Woodward wrote that Mr. Cohn told a colleague that he had to “protect the country.” Mr. Trump apparently never realized the letter had disappeared.

Even more significantly, there are ex-military people involved. From Reuters:

A new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, “Fear: Trump in the White House”, says Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017. The book said James Mattis, the defense secretary, told Trump he would “get right on it” but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.

I realize that we are in a sui generis time in history, and I am glad that (so far) the world has not been blown up, but the stuff for which we're all giving thanks the past two days essentially adds up to a coup d'etat. That's weird.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io