Being a total cynic about Donald Trump means you have to watch a lot of position-shifting…you know, like how when Barack Obama played golf, people who didn't like him would say he was a lousy president because he spent too much time on the links but now they're fine with Trump spending a whole lot more. Or people who chanted "Lock her up!" because Hillary didn't take every possible security procedure don't mind one bit that Trump uses an unsecured cell phone, ignoring his aides' pleas to not do that. This shifting-of-supposed-principles is not new to politics but we've never seen it on quite this scale before.
We all remember Trump on the campaign trail accusing Ms. Clinton of "Pay for play" and now it's pretty clear that in his White House, there's no play without pay. China invested $500 million in a venture involving Trump-branded hotels and, just by an extraordinary coincidence, Trump decided to remove the ban on U.S. companies selling to ZTE, the failing Chinese telecom giant. No connection! And read Kevin Drum about another couple of deals, one of which could be our next big White House sex scandal. Would so-called "pro-life" people turn on a president if it turned out, he'd not only had an affair but arranged for the lady to have an abortion? A few of them would.