What if he doesn’t know it’s over?

| 9:09 am EST December 8, 2018
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Last night, after Donald Trump suffered one of the worst moments that any president has ever had, and in fact a moment that helped bring into focus the fact that he isn’t even legitimately the president, Trump decided to celebrate. His fit of false bravado is still being laughed at. And that’s the point, right? He’s just defiantly thumbing his nose at everyone on his way down, because there’s nothing else he can do at this point. But what if he doesn’t know, or doesn’t understand, the trouble he’s in?

Trump’s tweet was so absurd, it’s difficult to know where to start: “Totally clears the President. Thank you!” What kind of genius waits until he’s been formally accused by the U.S. federal government of multiple felonies, then falsely exonerates himself in the third person, and thanks himself for it? Therein lies the trouble. This is just too absurd of a response, even for him.

We all know that Donald Trump’s current mental makeup is a combination of lifelong malignant sociopathic narcissism, legendary self delusion, and some kind of worsening cognitive failure. Maybe his brain is broken to the point that he just saw the confirmation that his former henchmen Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn have incriminated him, and it doesn’t compute that he’s indeed been incriminated. Maybe he sees his criminal soulmate Paul Manafort sitting in jail, and doesn’t understand that he’s headed there eventually, and for all the same crimes.

Donald Trump is now so screwed, with zero chance of surviving this politically or legally, his only remaining option is to try to negotiate some degree of leniency or partial immunity for him and his family, in exchange for his resignation. But that would require Trump understanding that he’s screwed. Does he know that? Is he capable of understanding it? Who’s going to break the news to him that it’s over?