Mr. Trump has sometimes broken with familiar presidential decorum

Reality as seen from the Wall Street Journal editorial board: fine, everything is fine, don’t worry about it, the very fact that so many people are so disgusted by Trump shows that he’s not a problem.

As Donald Trump heads into his second year as President, we’re pleased to report that there hasn’t been a fascist coup in Washington. This must be terribly disappointing to the progressive elites who a year ago predicted an authoritarian America because Mr. Trump posed a unique threat to democratic norms. But it looks like the U.S. will have to settle for James Madison’s boring checks and balances.

The ones that prevent an incompetent ignorant corrupt malevolent bully from attaining executive power and access to nuclear weapons? Those boring checks and balances?

Mr. Trump’s rhetorical attacks on the media are excessive. But for all of his bluster, we haven’t seen a single case of Trump prosecutors seeking warrants to eavesdrop on journalists to discover their sources.

But Trump’s “excessive” and also relentless and non-stop attacks on the news media are not inert; they have an effect; they coach we don’t know how many millions of people to distrust the Times and the Post and trust Fox News.

Mr. Trump is also facing a special counsel investigation with essentially unchecked power to investigate him and his family.

As that family infiltrates the federal government in defiance of an anti-nepotism law and enriches itself in defiance of several anti-corruption laws.

The real story of the past year is that, despite the daily Trumpian melodrama, the U.S. political system is working more or less as usual. Mr. Trump has sometimes broken with familiar presidential decorum, especially in his public statements and attacks on individuals. But he is paying a considerable political price for that excess with an approval rating below 40% less than a year into his term.

But he’s still doing it. It’s not some minor little side issue.

But hey, stocks are up, so go buy a golf course or something.

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