President Donald J. Trump possesses no talent more useful than his ability to inspire self-immolation in his critics. All things being equal, it ought not to be too difficult for the Democrats to offer up a sober case against this administration. They could point to Trump’s capricious trade war, which represents an unpopular unforced error that has sowed uncertainty in the markets and which has undermined what was previously considered to be the president’s core political competency. They could lambast the White House’s flirtation with defying the federal judiciary, which is not merely an outrage on its own terms but has put a dent in Trump’s hitherto impressive approval ratings on the border. Or they could take aim at his equivocation on the matter of Ukraine — with particular attention paid to his grotesque refusal to state clearly that the invasion, and the war that it engendered, are squarely Vladimir Putin’s fault.
Instead, they have chosen to return to the hyperbole, self-indulgence, catastrophizing, and fan-servicing that cost them the election last year.
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