Donald Trump and the Unmaking of American Greatness

Venal and corrupt and cruel as it may be, the Trump administration's biggest battle is with the American Idea itself.

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It says something, I think, about the temper of the times that Donald Trump’s disinclination to say he won’t run for a third term has become the sort of thing many people - and most newspapers, as best I can tell - can’t quite dismiss as an obvious provocation whose symbolism is more important than its likelihood. Trump will be 82 in 2028 and even more plainly gaga than he is now.

And that’s before you consider the plain meaning of the constitution and the Supreme Court’s view of this kind of caper. I doubt that any collection of Supreme Court justices would look kindly upon it and I include John Roberts and his colleagues i…