This could take down Donald Trump faster than anything else

| 7:07 pm EDT August 2, 2018
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Whatever purpose Rudy Giuliani was supposed to have served by running around over the past four months and muddying Donald Trump’s legal defense, he’s clearly become a liability of late. So naturally, this is the part where Trump steps up like the leader that he is, and either silences his friend Rudy or fires him. Just kidding, that didn’t happen. But surely someone in Trump’s inner circle has told a reluctant Trump that Rudy has to go, right? No, because there’s no one left to say it – and that’s the problem.

Since illegitimately taking office, Donald Trump’s inner circle has undergone numerous makeovers. In the beginning it was a mix of RNC guys like Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, his family members, and his own deranged pals like Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon. But he’s gradually chased them away and/or fed them to the wolves. Ivanka and Jared clearly no longer have any influence. John Kelly was later brought in to guide Trump, but he’s now a lame duck too.

We’ve since learned that Trump was also continuing to unofficially rely on the advice of his criminal co-conspirators like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, but he had to stop that once he learned there were FISA surveillance warrants against them both. So who’s left in Trump’s inner circle at this point? There have been brief moments here and there where Trump was clearly taking the advice of Stephen Miller, but that’s been fleeting. Kellyanne Conway is still in the building, but appears to play no role. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is, by all accounts, on her way out. So who’s left?

Well, no one. Thanks to attrition, controversy, scandal, and in some cases criminal prosecution, you can no longer point to a single person who could be considered part of Donald Trump’s circle. There’s no one left to tell him, for instance, that Rudy has to go. There’s no one to tell him to stop committing obstruction of justice via Twitter. There’s no one left to convince Trump that now would be a good time to negotiate his resignation, while he still has a bit of negotiating leverage left. Even the best of Presidents, and the smartest of leaders, rely on an inner circle. Trump is the opposite of those things, and he’s relying on literally no one. That may be his single biggest vulnerability.