I’m with you on all of this, point for point. It also needs to be noted that Trump made a statement some months back that the laws should be changed to make it easier for public figures to sue the press for libel. (Under present case law, a public figure has to show either malice or reckless disregard for the truth.) That leads to a good quote from a recent article in the New Yorker:
To say “Well, he would not really have the power to accomplish that” is to misunderstand the nature of thin-skinned authoritarians in power. They do not arrive in office and discover, as constitutionalists do, that their capabilities are more limited than they imagined. They arrive, and then make their power as large as they can. (Full article here.)
But when it comes to yelling “You’re a sleaze” at a press conference, with any luck people will stop admiring him by saying “he speaks his mind” and start thinking in terms of what it means to have a president with absolutely no dignity, manners or self-restraint. Speaking for myself, I always used to think my country had more brains than to let somebody this far removed from being fit for the presidency get this far. I used to think I understood my country. Now, I have no idea what to expect from it.
