Trump’s standing but shaken

While the legal bombshells set off by the Russia investigation badly shook Donald Trump’s White House this week, they failed to knock it off its foundations.

Those hoping this reckless and mendacious president would finally be held accountable for something in a court of law or even face impeachment and removal from office will be disappointed.

There’s no evidence Trump did anything illegal. He’s not going anywhere — yet.

But the arrest of Trump’s former campaign manager on serious charges and the news that a former adviser had pleaded guilty to lying about his communications with intermediaries of the Russian government should at least accomplish this much.

They should underline to fair-minded Americans who will vote in mid-terms next year the truly horrible political and moral judgment of their president.

If you can judge someone by the company he keeps, what does the following say about Trump?

On Monday, his ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort and another former senior campaign aide, Rick Gates, were charged with a dozen criminal offences that included conspiracy against the United States; failing to register as a foreign agent; lying to police; and laundering money — in this case $75 million US in payments through offshore bank accounts.

Things got worse for Trump with the revelation that George Papadopoulos, who had served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, had pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal investigators and is now co-operating with the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller.

Predictably, Trump tried to slough off the evidence that people around him were connected to the regime of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. This is the government suspected of interfering in last year’s presidential election to help seal a Trump victory.

Trump, however, pointed out that what Manafort is alleged to have done occurred before he worked for Trump.

As for Papadopoulos, Trump dismissed him as an inconsequential player.

But did Trump know nothing of the kind of person Manafort was before giving him a central role in his campaign? Manafort worked for years and profited handsomely trying to improve the public image of the former, pro-Russia government of Ukraine.

As for Papadopoulos, in 2016 he was repeatedly communicating with Russian intermediaries. Papadopoulos and one of his contacts even talked about the “dirt” the Russians had uncovered by hacking the emails of Trump’s rival to become president — Hillary Clinton.

It seems unlikely Papadopoulos was acting independently with no one higher up in the campaign either aware of or directing his actions.

It’s true none of this is directly connected to Trump. But these are early days for Mueller’s probe.

Certainly the public will have to postpone final judgment until more information comes out — as it likely will as more people facing charges are questioned and consider making a deal.

But it’s not too early for Americans to start thinking about next year’s mid-term elections, when Trump’s Republicans could lose control of Congress.

Based on all that we know, he’s unworthy of the voters’ support. John Roe