But these two institutional forces — the press and the presidency — operate under different codes, have different objectives and are held to different standards. While the press is, for the most part, properly exercising its power to shine light into places that the powerful would prefer remained dark, Trump is abusing his power by trying to squash dissent through defamation of individual journalists, individual shows and individual networks or newspapers.

This battle that Trump insists on maintaining also serves a wider goal for him: distraction. As long as we focus on the latest outrage he publishes on Twitter attacking one person or another, the less time we have to focus on the fact that his presidency thus far is a colossal legislative failure, his cabinet is an unending game of cloak and daggers meets musical chairs, his Justice Department is systematically and unrelentingly expressing its hostilities to equal rights, and Trump’s reckless, emotionally triggered language and actions are making us less safe by denigrating diplomacy and advocating military aggression.

This says nothing of the work that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is doing, although I try to keep that to the side while still keeping an eye on it. No one outside of Mueller’s team truly knows the extent of his investigation or the extent of what has been discovered. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know.

Just this week, Trump signaled his plan to decertify the landmark nuclear deal with Iran that was negotiated under the Obama administration, while at the same time he ominously mused at a photo op with military commanders: “You guys know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.” When asked what he meant by storm, Trump refused to clarify. But, on Saturday afternoon in consecutive tweets, Trump wrote:

“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid...... ...hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!”