Ted Lieu: Instead Of Holding Stupid Hearings About Why Republican Legislators Don't Get Enough Likes On Facebook, We Will Be Holding Hearings On Whether Any Crimes Were Committed

The Washington Post has a squad devoted to reporting on Trump's lies. Monday they wrote about his deranged address at CPAC-- the one that crackpot editor of Reason, Nick Gillespie, insists won him the 2020 election: "Powered by his two-hour stemwinder at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 2-- which featured more than 100 false or misleading claims-- President Trump is on pace to exceed his daily quota set during his first two years in office. The president averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims a day in his first year in office. He hit nearly 16.5 a day in his second year. So far in 2019, he’s averaging nearly 22 claims a day.

That Trump lies a lot should surprise no one with a functioning brain. At the moment only 4% of the statements PolitiFact have checked out by him are true-- YES, only 4%! Saving grace: another 15% of his statements have been found mostly true. that means just over 4 out of 5 of Trump's checked statements are rated half true, another way of saying half false (14%), mostly false (21%), flat out false (34%) or such big lies that they are rated "Pants on Fire" (14%). Lying isn't an impeachable offense per se. But in Trump's case, it endangers the security of the nation and should absolutely be part of the impeachment process.

In response to a tweet by Bob Cesca after Trump's CPAC breakdown ("This crackpot has the nuclear codes in his pocket. Sleep tight, world."), top Republican Party strategist Stuart Stevens tweeted that "It is impossible to watch Trump’s two hour meltdown at CPAC and think this person is of sound mind." In case you're unaware of who Stevens is, he was Romney's chief strategist in 2012 and worked for President Bush, Governors Haley Barbour (R-MS), Tom Ridge (R-PA), Bill Weld (R-MA), Paul Cellucci (R-MA), and Bob Riley (R-AL), as well as Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS), Dick Lugar (R-IN), Mel Martinez (R-FL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ).

Mental health isn't impeachable but theoretically there is a way of removing a mentally deranged president, like Trump-- the 25th Amendment. Here's a brief analysis:

[W]hat happens if the President becomes unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office? Several Presidents suffered debilitating illnesses and injuries. For weeks and months at a time, the country was left without effective or accountable presidential leadership. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 provided for the Vice President to step in when the President had an “inability to discharge [his] powers and duties,” but it provided no decision-maker, no procedures, and no definition of “inability.” Nor did it make clear whether the Vice President would act as President only until the President recovered, or instead would become President for the duration of the term. No Vice President wanted to seem like a usurper. In practice, power was never transferred and presidential inner circles typically concealed the President’s condition.

...Section 4 addresses the dramatic case of a President who may be unable to fulfill his constitutional role but who cannot or will not step aside. It provides both a decision-maker and a procedure. The initial deciding group is the Vice President and a majority of either the Cabinet or some other body that Congress may designate (though Congress has never done so). If this group declares a President “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the Vice President immediately becomes Acting President. If and when the President pronounces himself able, the deciding group has four days to disagree. If it does not, the President retakes his powers. But if it does, the Vice President keeps control while Congress quickly meets and makes a decision. The voting rule in these contested cases favors the President; the Vice President continues acting as President only if two-thirds majorities of both chambers agree that the President is unable to serve.

That's never going to work against Trump. He could be filmed naked, eating grass on the front lawn of the White House and screaming obscenities at passers-by and still be declared perfectly sane by Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Steven Mnuchin, Patrick Shanahan, William Barr, Rick Perry, Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, Alex Acosta and Mr. and Mrs. (and Miss) Mitch McConnell, et al. And that takes us back to... Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Yesterday, the committee's attorneys sent letters to 81 individuals, companies and government entities seeking a wide range of materials that should be able to help prove that Trump is guilty of clearly impeachable offenses. In the letters, Nadler wrote that "This is a critical time for our nation. President Trump and his administration face wide-ranging allegations of misconduct that strike at the heart of our constitutional order." The letters will lead to closed door interviews and open hearings and some of the recipients include Trumpanzee, Jr., Allen Weisselberg, David Pecker, Alan Garten, Rhona Graff, Ivanka, Kushner-in-law, Steve Bannon, Tom Barrack, Reince Priebus, Don McGahn, Jay Sekulow, KT McFarland, Hope Hicks, Sean Spicer, Corey Lewandowski, Paul Manafort, Anatoli Samochornov, Brad Parscale, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, Roger Stone, Carter Page, Erik Prince, Jeff Sessions, Michael Caputo, Randy Credico, Sam Nunberg, Viktor Vekselberg, Tony Fabrizio, as well as Wikileaks and the NRA. I still haven't been able to confirm if either of the Mercers, who were clearly behind Putin-Gate, have gotten letters yet.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "The counsel’s office and relevant White House officials will review it and respond at the appropriate time." As I mentioned yesterday-- but worth repeating today-- Judiciary Committee member and Air Force JAG officer, Ted Lieu told me that "Unlike last term, the House Judiciary Committee will actually conduct oversight over the Executive Branch. Instead of holding stupid hearings about why Republican legislators don't get enough likes on Facebook, we will be holding hearings on whether any crimes were committed by Executive Branch officials and those within their orbit. We have launched a massive investigation into Trump, his family and his associates. We do not work for Trump. We are part of a separate and coequal branch of government. And we intend to honor our oath of office."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I'm glad Senator Whitehouse has said what he said (above), but it's horrifying to me that it has taken more than two years for even a handful of people in Washington to even begin talking about Donald Trump's obvious severe mental illness and treachery. During the 2016 campaign, any reasonable person could look at any two minute segment of any Trump speech or interview and see that he was not just 25th Amendment material but a strong candidate, not for the presidency, but the nuthouse or a federal penitentiary.

So, now, more than two years too late, we get small doses of words but no action. It's the new thoughts and prayers in the face of another national emergency, and the Washington establishment and their establishment media hack brethren talk about who might defeat Trump in 2020 when the possibility of him even getting to run for reelection should be obliterated. This is the definition of complacency and being complicit.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Today I'm beginning a new short series of memes within the Midnight Meme Of The Day!. It's called "The Loser President" and it will be just a small number of memes not unlike a previous series I did called Alt History Pres. Trumps Of The Past which ran back in July.

When I do a mini-series of memes, I do it because some pictures I come upon are just plain deserving of more than one caption and there can never be too much derision aimed at such a pathetic and evil worm as Donald Jackass Trump. We won't necessarily run the memes in the series on consecutive nights. The rapid fire of news events these days often preclude things like that. But I will sprinkle them in over the next several days.

One last thing: Just so you understand, I am not unsympathetic towards the mentally ill. Unlike President Trump and those he has chosen to surround himself with, I do have compassion for others, but, when a person's mental illness manifests itself as evilly as our president's, such evil must be dealt with or it metastasizes. It is apparently already too late for the 25th amendment to be invoked because the evil that is Trump has spread throughout the cabinet members who should have invoked it long ago. Trump's post election antics have only pointed that out even more. He is clearly incapacitated. In a weird way, that may even be a good thing if he gets any worse, but he needs to be isolated, pronto.

Trump's Too Strung Out On Pills To Do His Job-- But No One Wants To Bring Up The 25th Amendment

Forget for a moment about all the Republicans who gave up their seats voluntarily to escape TrumpWorld or to avoid ignominious defeat. Just look at the ones who stood and fought— and were defeated. Or, in the eyes of the returning congressional Republicans… colleagues who were vanquished. For them these weren't just names or even just friends... this is a warning that they could be next:

• Jeff Denham (CA-10)
• Steve Knight (CA-25)
• Mimi Walters (CA-45)
• Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)
• Mike Coffman (CO-06)
• Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
• Karen Handel (GA-06)
• Pete Roskam (IL-06)
• Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
• Rod Blum (IA-01)
• David Young (IA-03)
• Kevin Yoder (KS-03)
• Mike Bishop (MI-08)
• Jason Lewis (MN-02)
• Erik Paulsen (MN-03)
• Tom MacArthur (NJ-03)
• Leonard Lance (NJ-07)
• Dan Donovan (NY-11)
• John Faso (NY-19)
• Claudia Tenney (NY-22)
• Steve Russell (OK-05)
• Keith Rothfus (PA-17)
• John Culberson (TX-07)
• Scott Taylor (VA-02)
• Dave Brat (VA-07)
• Barbara Comstock (VA-10)

And besides those 26 lying maimed and lifeless on the battlefield, another 5 are seriously wounded and not out of the woods yet: David Valadao (CA-21), Bruce Poliquin (ME-02), Chris Collins (NY-27), Will Hurd (TX-23) and Mia Love (UT-04). Over a dozen others had dangerously close calls that auger poorly for 2020.

So what lessons have been learned by the congressional Republicans? Lost comrades included both mainstream conservatives like Leonard Lance, Dan Donovan and Carlos Curbelo and far right extremists like David Brat, Steve Knight and Rod Blum— some who worshipped at the feet of Trump, like Mimi Walters and Claudia Tenney and some who tried to stand up to him from time to time, like Jeff Denham and Mike Coffman. Lisa Mascaro, writing for the Associated Press, reported that the fight for House Republican leadership, post-Waterloo, is forcing them to assess the damage and try making heads or tails out of the fresh carnage. “Frustration, finger-pointing and questions,” she wrote, “spilled over a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Tuesday night as lawmakers sorted through an election defeat that cost them the majority and began considering new leadership for their shrunken minority. Republicans complained about the unpopularity of the GOP tax law they blamed for losses in New York and other key states, some attendees told reporters after the meeting. Some in the meeting said Republicans should have tried harder to fulfill President Donald Trump’s priorities, like funding for the border wall with Mexico. They also warned that they need a new fundraising mechanism to compete with the small-dollar online donors that powered Democrats to victory.”

With the speaker’s gavel now out of reach, GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump ally, is poised to take over as minority leader. But the Californian has struggled in the past to build support from conservatives. He faces a longshot challenge from Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus who has support from outside conservative groups and got a second-look during a nearly two-hour candidate forum Tuesday.

Trump has stayed largely on the sidelines ahead of closed-door elections Wednesday that will determine party leadership not only for House Republicans, but also for Senate Democrats and Republicans, and set the tone for the new Congress. Voting for the biggest race, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s bid to return as the Democrats’ nominee for speaker, is later this month.

Jordan told reporters that he made a pitch to his colleagues at a sometimes-tense session in the Capitol basement based on three questions: “Why’d we lose, how do we get it back and what we’re up against.”

The former college wrestling champ said he told Republicans they need a fighter to confront Pelosi and her new majority.

“I think we’re entering a world we haven’t really seen,” he said, rattling off the names of the Democratic chairmen who are poised to investigate Trump. “It’s going to take an attitude and an intensity about standing up for the truth and fighting.”

Most GOP lawmakers, though, prefer McCarthy’s more affable approach, and he remained favored to win Wednesday. Accompanied by his wife, McCarthy entered the meeting room, telling reporters, “We’ve got a plan.”

Scalise will remain party whip and Liz Cheney will take the #3 roll, conference chair, bumping Cathy McMorris Rodgers. For all his gas lighting, Trump is simultaneously furious, nervous and depressed over the midterms. Eli Stokols reported for the L.A. Times that he’s largely abandoned the few traditional presidential duties he was doing. Although he appeared unhinged on the campaign trail, the unshackled nature of the last month or two catering to his adoring, low-info, neo-fascist fans, invigorated him. Perhaps he’s figured out the connection between his hate rallies and his party’s debilitating losses. “[H]is mood,” wrote Stokols, “apparently has changed as he has taken measure of the electoral backlash that voters delivered Nov. 6. With the certainty that the incoming Democratic House majority will go after his tax returns and investigate his actions, and the likelihood of additional indictments by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Trump has retreated into a cocoon of bitterness and resentment, according to multiple administration sources. Behind the scenes, they say, the president has lashed out at several aides, from junior press assistants to senior officials. ‘He’s furious,’ said one administration official. ‘Most staffers are trying to avoid him.’ The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, painted a picture of a brooding president ‘trying to decide who to blame’ for Republicans’ election losses, even as he publicly and implausibly continues to claim victory.” He’s all but fired Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen. The media is keeping it quiet but the rumors have been swirling that he’s drugged up on Adderall and unable to function, even minimally, shirking all duties and all pretence of being in charge of anything.

The Diplomat by Nancy Ohanian

[A]ccording to a source outside the White House who has spoken recently with the president, last week’s Wall Street Journal report confirming Trump’s central role during the 2016 campaign in quietly arranging payoffs for two women alleging affairs with him seemed to put him in an even worse mood.

Publicly, Trump has been increasingly absent in recent days— except on Twitter. He has canceled travel plans and dispatched Cabinet officials and aides to events in his place— including sending Vice President Mike Pence to Asia for the annual summits there in November that past presidents nearly always attended.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II was in Washington on Tuesday and met with Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, but not the president.

Also Tuesday, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis announced plans to travel on Wednesday near the U.S.-Mexico border to visit with troops Trump ordered there last month in what is ostensibly a mission to defend against a caravan of Central American migrants moving through Mexico and still hundreds of miles from the United States.

Trump had reportedly considered making that trip himself, but has decided against it. Nor has he spoken of the caravan since the midterm elections, after making it a central issue in his last weeks of campaigning.

Unusually early on Monday, the White House called a “lid” at 10:03 a.m. EST, informing reporters that the president would not have any scheduled activities or public appearances for the rest of the day. Although it was Veterans Day, Trump bucked tradition and opted not to make the two-mile trip to Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, as presidents since at least John F. Kennedy have done to mark the solemn holiday.

Trump’s only public appearance Tuesday was at a short White House ceremony marking the start of the Hindu holiday Diwali at which he made brief comments and left without responding to shouted questions.

He had just returned Sunday night from a two-day trip to France to attend ceremonies marking the centennial of the armistice that ended World War I. That trip was overshadowed, in part, by Trump’s decision not to attend a wreath-laying at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, the burial place for 2,289 soldiers 60 miles northeast of Paris, due to rain.

Kelly, a former Marine Corps general, and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did attend to honor the American service members interred there. Trump stayed in the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Paris, making no public appearances.

Other heads of state also managed to make it to World War I cemeteries in the area for tributes to their nations’ war dead on Saturday.

Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin were the only world leaders to skip a procession of world leaders to another commemoration, on Sunday, at the Arc de Triomphe. About 80 heads of state walked in unison— under umbrellas in the pouring rain— down Paris’ grand Champs-Elysees boulevard. Trump arrived later by motorcade, a decision aides claimed was made for security reasons.

Nicholas Burns, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush, said the weekend events, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of a war in which 120,000 Americans were killed, were ripe for soaring words and symbolic gestures, which Trump failed to provide.

“Not only did he barely show up, he didn't say anything that would help Americans understand the scale of the loss, or the importance of avoiding another great war,” Burns said. “He seemed physically and emotionally apart. It’s such a striking difference between the enthusiasm he showed during the campaign and then going to Paris and sulking in his hotel room.”

He added, “The country deserves more energy from the president.”

Trump took heavy flak on social media, especially for his no-show at the military cemetery.

"President @realDonaldTrump a no-show because of raindrops?” tweeted former Secretary of State John F. Kerry, a Navy veteran. “Those veterans the president didn’t bother to honor fought in the rain, in the mud, in the snow - & many died in trenches for the cause of freedom. Rain didn’t stop them & it shouldn’t have stopped an American president.”

Nicholas Soames, a member of Britain’s Parliament and grandson of Winston Churchill, tweeted, "They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen.”

Trump, clearly feeling on the defensive days later, tried to explain himself on Tuesday, in a tweet.

"By the way, when the helicopter couldn’t fly to the first cemetery in France because of almost zero visibility, I suggested driving," he wrote. "Secret Service said NO, too far from airport & big Paris shutdown. Speech next day at American Cemetary [sic] in pouring rain! Little reported-Fake News!"

In that tweet, Trump falsely described the weather at the Sunday visit to another U.S. cemetery. Rather than “pouring rain,” photos showed him standing without a hat or an umbrella under overcast skies when he delivered remarks, though he did grasp an umbrella at one point while paying tribute at one soldier’s grave.

Just as Trump was returning to Washington on Sunday evening, Pence was heading to Asia in the president’s place, and at his first stop greeted Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Trump’s absence, experts said, is notable, and a glaring affront to many Asian leaders.

“It matters more in Asia than other regions because ‘face’ is so important,” said Matthew P. Goodman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former White House coordinator for Asia-Pacific strategy during the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. “Your willingness to go out there is a sign you're committed and not going is a sign you're not.”

Putin is attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, looking to expand his country’s influence in Asia. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea are also attending regional summits. And China’s President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang are simultaneously attending meetings across the region looking to broaden their country’s influence in the South China Sea and expand multilateral trade agreements.

Although Trump is set to meet with Xi at the Group of 20 summit of wealthy countries this month in Buenos Aires, his absence from the major Indo-Pacific meetings for a second straight year will “have some consequences for our position and our interests in the region,” Goodman continued. “Other countries are going to move ahead without us.”

What makes Trump’s perceived snub to the Asian powers more significant is that it comes on the heels of his brief European trip, which showcased his growing isolation from transatlantic allies. French President Emmanuel Macron rebuked Trump in a speech, stating that “nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism” as the U.S. president looked on sullenly.

Trump’s relations with Latin America, already strained, are little better after the White House last week announced that he was reneging for a second time on a commitment to visit Colombia. He had planned to go there later this month on his way back from the G-20 meetings.

In April, he’d sent Pence in his place to the Summit of the Americas in Peru, citing a need to remain in Washington to monitor the U.S. response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria. He’d planned to visit Bogota on the same trip.

This time around, there appeared to be no extenuating circumstances preventing a visit.

In a statement, the White House simply said, “President Trump’s schedule will not allow him to travel to Colombia later this month.”

Trump Coninues Making The Case For The Implementation Of The 25th Amendment

Tweeter by Nancy Ohanian

We've talked about Dr. Bandy Lee's best-selling book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President before. Now there are reports that White House staffers contacted Dr. Lee about Trump's cognitive deterioration and bizarre, erratic behavior. White House staffers contacted her-- twice-- because they judged Trump to be "unravelling." As you know Trump has called himself a "very stable genius." The NY Daily News reported that political psychologist Dr. Bart Rossi told them that Trump has been exhibiting narcissistic behavior and it has been getting worse as the pressures of the office mount and the federal Russia probe stretches on. 'I see someone who has a real narcissistic problem,' Rossi told them. 'The problem is he is narcissistic to the extreme. He’s self-absorbed to the point where he’s only concerned about himself. The other problem is that he has a thought disturbance. When Donald Trump says something he expects others to believe it is reality even if it is completely fabricated. We’re in very dangerous territory.' Rossi said his analysis is based on Trump's public statements and is made in the context of political psychology."

Now, put that together with Michael Gerson's Washington Post piece this morning, "We Are A Superpower Run By A Simpleton," in which he points out that this is the essence of the Trump Era. "From a foreign policy perspective, this is far worse than being run by a skilled liar. It is an invitation to manipulation and contempt. What we are finding from books, from insider leaks and from investigative journalism is that the rational actors who are closest to the president are frightened by his chaotic leadership style. They describe a total lack of intellectual curiosity, mental discipline and impulse control... Trump pursues no deep or subtle strategies. He does not even consistently seek his own interests. He responds like a child or a narcissist-- but I repeat myself-- to positive or negative stimulation. It is the reason that Trump’s lawyers, in the end, can’t allow him to be interviewed by Robert Mueller. It would be like a 9-year-old defending a PhD dissertation. Or maybe a rabbit jumping into a buzz saw."



On Thursday, Elizabeth Warren told a CNN reporter that "If senior administration officials think the president of the United States is not able to do his job, then they should invoke the 25th Amendment. The Constitution provides for a procedure whenever the vice president and senior officials think the president can't do his job. It does not provide that senior officials go around the president-- take documents off his desk, write anonymous op-eds... Every one of these officials have sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's time for them to do their job... What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the president can't do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution? They can't have it both ways. Either they think that the president is not capable of doing his job, in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the president is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do."

This is what the Republican Party has leading them into the November midterm elections. And do they ever deserve what's coming their way! This is what you nominated, elected and still enable and support, Republicanos. This is what you have inflicted on your country... you fucking assholes:

What Would Freud Do? by Nancy Ohanian

Is The Failing, Treasonous NY Times Trying To Drive Trumpanzee Insane?

Did you ever doubt that Trumpanzee called Jeff Sessions a retard? Why? Once Melania almost left him because, referring to his youngest son's autism on Howard Stern's radio show, he called Barron a retard. After she flipped out, he said he didn't mean Barron, but Donald, Jr. Yesterday, the Daily Beast confirmed that Trump is always calling Sessions a retard. Trump, wrote Asawin Suebsaeng, "definitely believes-- and has said so out loud-- that his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is a "retard."

Two people with direct knowledge of Trump’s comments tell the Daily Beast that they have heard the president mock Sessions-- a frequent target of his cyber-bullying and degradation-- as mentally deficient, personally annoying, and “retarded” and a “retard.”

Today, the NY Times editorial page explained that it was "taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers."

Honestly it was shocking and, no doubt, Trump is simultaneously trying to find out who it is while assuring his retarded supporters that it's fake news. (Yes, of course I apologize; I just couldn't help myself.) Ready to ready a few excepts from I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration? This seems exciting a book-worthy: "I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations." I hate all this referencing of him as "president." People should either say "the occupant of the White House" or, if they must, :the illegitimate president," which is far more accurate than the "president." I usually call him Señor Trumpanzee.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma-- which he does not fully grasp-- is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

...From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

Do you think our "president" is sleeping tonight?

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

The result is a two-track presidency.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.

Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

...Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until-- one way or another-- it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.

...There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.