The president who thinks he’s a king

President Trump began the week, as is his wont, by having a Twitter fit about the continuing Russia investigation.

‘‘As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?’’ Trump groused. ‘‘In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!’’

It has long been clear that Trump confuses the role and powers of the president with those of a king. His legal team, regrettably, seems to be actively fuelling this confusion, as revealed in the recently leaked memos that it sent to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, the theme of which more or less boils down to the Nixonian musing: ‘‘When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.’’

Arguably more noteworthy, and more troubling, is the president’s emerging effort to preemptively place the blame on what he denounces as the partisan, ‘‘rigged’’, ‘‘unconstitutional’’ machinations of Mueller and his team. At the core of what Trump is selling is the idea that all of government and politics and culture are rotten, and that only he can be trusted to get things back on track. But on those occasions when he fails to deliver, don’t look for him to accept responsibility. He’ll just find another reason to blame the system.