He’s not even four months into his term and he’s already thinking about a wholesale housecleaning and reduction in counselors.

This is surely a result of Trump being used to running the whole show and being surrounded by sycophants who would make sure that his every wish and need was taken care of without question.  That’s how it worked at his business, so that’s what he expects as president.  The very idea of being held accountable to Congress or the voters?  You’re kidding, right?

I think what we’re seeing here is the result of Trump taking on a job he thought would be so easy — after all, Dubya and Obama did it — but is not only much harder than he thought but it requires a skill set that he doesn’t have: the ability to get along with people, listen to them, and actually follow their advice, even if it goes against his instinct.  All signs, either now or in his past, indicate that he’s never had to do that, and even when faced with defeat, bankruptcy, or defiance, he’s managed to absorb it not as a failure or mistake on his part but as a betrayal or failure by someone else.

So far the failures and fumbles of this administration have been minor compared to what could really happen, and in the hands of other administrations, they would have been dealt with swiftly and moved on; Hillary Clinton’s attempt at healthcare reform didn’t result in the purge of the cabinet, and if the Trump administration faced the backlash that greeted the arrival of the Obamas, he would have lined up his cabinet against the wall at Mar-a-Lago.  What is really scary is contemplating what’s going to happen when the inevitable major challenge comes along: an economic downturn, a major terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or any one of the number of things that happen in the life of a presidency.  Those won’t be resolved by firing the staff and leaving it up to your son-in-law and retreating to the residence to wait for the adulation from Sean Hannity.

Bonus Track from D.R. Tucker in Washington Monthly:

Donald Trump did not make himself President. A significant portion of the American electorate begged for a candidate like Trump–someone who scorned expertise, someone who believed that talking tough constituted leadership, someone who believed America fell into degeneration in the years following Brown v. Board of Education. Trump is the natural consequence of a generation of folks that watched All in the Family and actually thought the Archie Bunker character would make a one heck of a president.

The folks who voted for Trump knew exactly what they were doing. It wasn’t desperation. It wasn’t confusion. It was a willful and deliberate attempt to turn the clock back, to “deconstruct the administrative state,” to live out a fantasy of privilege, prejudice and power.

When Trump attacks our institutions, he is doing so with the full and total imprimatur and approval of those who voted for him. They like what they’re getting. Progressive nightmares are the same as their dreams.

It’s easy to put this all on Trump. It’s easy to say he’s out of control. It’s harder to countenance the idea that those who voted for Trump wanted chaos and disorder, wanted national and international harmony destroyed, wanted to eliminate all vestiges of progressivism and enlightenment in this country. No one wants to believe their neighbors hate them.

Which means that even if Trump can’t handle the job, they’ll still say they support him.