Charles Krauthammer said that the appointment of Robert Mueller to be special counsel to oversee the Russia investigation helps Trump deal with the situation now, but his control over it will be lost over time:
The idea that there’s only one possible scandal here, I think, is mistaken, and obviously it is prejudiced. But it doesn’t help the president. It doesn’t help to say “Yes, but how about the others?” He is the president. This is now his problem. And I think Jonah’s right: The appointment of a special counsel is what the president needs and helps him in the short run. Because then all inquiries can be dumped onto the special council, you can deflect them by saying “There is an investigation. We will find out.”
The problem is for the long run. The long run is that he has lost control. You could in theory have him fired, but you really can’t in reality. There’s only so much firing you can do, and the reason that we are in dangerous territory for Trump is: Once you’ve done the big one, once you’ve shot the big adversary, meaning you got rid of the director of the FBI, which is a pretty unusual step, then you really don’t have a lot of bullets left. That’s why I think the vulnerability is that Mueller can take this anywhere he wants for as long as he wants and no one is in control except Mueller.
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