News broke this week that President Donald Trump was conditioning approval of an infrastructure spending Bill on renaming New York City’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles Airport in his honour. It was unsurprising because there’s a disturbing pattern in Mr Trump’s approach to governing that includes glorification of the leader, erasure of norms, threats of retribution, and reliance on “alternative facts.”

Once again writing about President Trump, I know some will accuse me of what the president calls “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” I confess to being obsessed with his incendiary speech, behaviour, and movement, because of their danger to American democracy.

During Mr Trump’s first term we dreaded the morning news about his threatening tweets posted overnight. But with guardrails—senior staff who slow-walked his demands or refused to act on them, or Congress or the courts checking his behaviour—most often the threats were hollow.

But in his second term, the guardrails are gone. The President is emboldened to move beyond empty words to actions which his minions faithfully attempt to execute. As a result, we’re entering uncharted waters........

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