Donald Trump wimps out

| 10:39 pm EDT September 16, 2018
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Maybe it’s still coming. We’ll see. Even dormant volcanoes can end up erupting, particularly if they’re mentally unstable volcanoes, and… okay, we lost the plot on that one. But at the end of a week full of Trump-related surprises, the most remarkable development may be that Donald Trump has utterly wimped out when it comes to Paul Manafort.

Here’s Donald Trump’s latest tweet: “Best economic numbers in decades. If the Democrats take control, kiss your newfound wealth goodbye!” That’s typical of what he’s been posting in the more than forty-eight hours since Manafort cut a plea deal and agreed to cooperate against him. Sure, Trump exploded about Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the imaginary “17 Angry Democrats” this morning, but that’s nothing new; if anything, Trump has been cautiously retracing his steps. Paul Manafort is, simply put, off limits.

Donald Trump has not yet addressed Stanford Professor Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and attempted rape. That’ll almost surely come, and it’ll be disgusting. Trump is already in too deep on that one not to come out swinging. He used some kind of still not fully exposed scheme to prompt Anthony Kennedy into an abrupt retirement. He picked Kavanaugh for the express purpose of trying to keep himself out of prison, even after the GOP leadership urged him to pick someone, anyone, else. He’ll start attacking Ford soon enough, once he wraps his head around it.

But Trump keeps wimping out on Paul Manafort, even though Manafort just personally betrayed him, and even though we’ve seen Trump consistently lash out and/or threaten everyone who has done so up to this point. Sure, Trump has been blindsided by Manafort’s sudden and unexpected deal. But he surely didn’t see Michael Cohen’s deal coming either, yet he quickly had a retort to it. For whatever reason, Trump is afraid of Manafort. Maybe Manafort simply knows too much. Maybe Trump is afraid of Manafort because he’s so thoroughly Kremlin-connected. Whatever the reason, Trump just doesn’t have it in him.