The Shields Are Down, Mr. President

It’s my favorite “Star Trek” moment:

Shields are down, captain! We can’t take another hit!

In what seems like every movie or episode, whenever a federation starship is engaged in battle, its deflector shields are being raised or dropped or damaged by enemy fire to some oddly specific level (47 percent, say). It’s the stuff of high drama, when risk meets strategy to force a life-or-death decision. When shields are down, will the captain surrender, call for a shipwide evacuation or launch an ingenious counterattack?

I do not claim full Trekkie status, but I’ve been thinking about those shields as I watch President Trump’s second term. Trump seems to have his own set of deflector shields: his cabinet secretaries and other top officials, whom he uses to absorb some of the blowback from his most contentious........

© The New York Times