We begin today’s roundup with an editorial from The New York Times on Donald Trump’s contempt for the Constitution:
Twenty months into the job, Mr. Trump has yet to grasp that the highest law of this land is the Constitution, not whoever occupies the Oval Office at any given moment.
His blind spot for the Constitution has been much on display in other ways in recent days. Asked about protests that erupted during this week’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump expressed dismay and puzzlement: “I don’t know why they don’t take care of a situation like that. I think it’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don’t even know what side the protesters are on.”
Someone with the president’s best interests at heart may want to explain to him that the First Amendment specifically protects political expression, no matter how befuddling some find it. Presidents do not get to outlaw speech simply because they find it distasteful.
The USA Today editorial board:
The mounting evidence, from people inside the White House itself, that Captain Trump may be erratically steering the nation toward an iceberg is both clarifying and somewhat terrifying. [...] the consistent cascade of curtain-peeling revelations grows harder to ignore and more frightening to contemplate.
And each round of White House denial rings more hollow than the last, particularly given the Trump Twitter rages that so neatly echo the behavioral profile of the man offered by these insider accounts. [...] How and when the Trump administration ends is unknowable at this point. But its current course is looking increasingly unsustainable.