Donald Trump’s early days as President have not been good. His one major initiative – the Muslim ban – was iced by the judiciary – and now he has withdrawn it. His National Security Adviser caressed the Russians, lied to the FBI, and resigned. His putative replacement looked at the job and said ‘not with a ten-foot pole’. Some Cabinet picks have withdrawn. Others have had to explain away shady financial dealings. And others are derided as crackbrains.

Despite his laughable claim that his administration is a “well-oiled machine”, it has been chaotic – with competing power centers, poor communication and hastily proposed, ill-drafted measures.

The man himself is the same thin-skinned, vainglorious, lying bully as he was during the campaign. He has not grown into the office. Responsibility has not instilled in him a sense of duty. He is incapable of seeing anything larger than himself. The idea that he should be of service to the people is an anathema to him. The presidency is just another notch.

Trump’s deficiencies extend to his team – unsurprisingly, given that he prizes loyalty over ability in picking his staff. Their best asset – perhaps only asset – is a willingness to lie. His chief adviser, Steve Bannon, embraces the narrow and vile in American life. He is a paranoid warrior tilting against windmills of international conspiracy.

His Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, is an ingratiating toad.

And enabling the madness is a Republican Congress so craven that they have shown that the last refuge of a scoundrel isn’t patriotism, but Party.

Ronald Reagan rests in legend as the man who won the Cold War. Now his political heirs have waved away Trump’s collusion with the Russians as a bit of understandable naughtiness – best dealt with by the administration itself.

You have to wonder what political blindness allows the party of national security to dismiss potential Russian interference in an American general election as just some run-of-the-mill political activity.

It makes you wonder if Vladimir Putin either has compromising photographs. Or if his authoritarian ways are irresistible to those who fantasize about doing the same over here.

The Republicans have a leader without a conscience. A White House without a soul. An administration without a clue. And a Congress without a spine. There is no there, there.

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