Daniel Larison may write for the American Conservative but he has much the same view of Donald Trump as I do. Key quote…
The president could hardly be anything else, since the only things that seem to concern him are how others treat him and the status of his brand. He makes no firm commitments, and he reverses himself according to whatever is most expedient to him at the time. It is almost inevitable that he is winging it because he has no relevant experience or knowledge that would keep him from doing so. Trump believes in himself and nothing else, and Chesterton observed long ago that asylums were full of such people.
Moving on: As Jonathan Chait reports, accounts of that meeting Donald Trump Jr. had in Trump Tower with Russian officials are sounding more and more treasonous. In other words, more evidence that even Maxwell Smart couldn't overlook.
Steve Bannon has this concept called "Economic Nationalism" which he believes is the Republican mantra to remain in power forever. Matt Yglesias explains it for us and tells us why it's nonsense.
Ezra Klein on Trump's defense of Civil War monuments. How many people think Trump would hesitate a second before tearing down anything in this country if he wanted to build a Trump Something — a hotel, a country club, a statue of himself — on that land?
And lastly: Every so often, I run into someone who thinks the United States was a hellhole under Barack Obama and that Trump is great if only because he isn't his predecessor. These folks never convince me that Obama was bad. They don't even convince me that they would have had any problem with anything he did had he been white and/or someone they could think of as "their guy." But for the record, let's review Eight Years of Suffering under President Obama.