After mueller, expect trump to go ‘full animal’

So Donald Trump declares that Robert Mueller has cleared him. Total vindication. The president asserts his innocence, and the unfairness of it all, like a crazed parrot in a gilded cage.

At every opportunity since Mueller’s findings landed — before Trump got on Air Force One in Florida, after he got off Air Force One in Washington, at the White House and on Twitter — he has called this a hoax, a witch hunt, a lynching, an auto-da-fé.

Worse, this was a campaign carried out by “evil people, treasonous people,” who should be held accountable. And he hints, darkly, as all strong men do, that the law will catch up with them.

Well, what else would we expect? Trump has built his political career trumpeting the big lie — claiming that Barack Obama was born in Kenya or that millions voted illegally in 2016 — and he now calls the investigation into collusion with the Russians a conspiracy of its own against little ol’ me.

Sunday was the best day of Trump’s presidency — if only because had things gone differently, it would have effectively been his last. Now, applauded by loyalists, he shapes a new narrative as the wronged president. Playing the victim, he’s brilliant.

In lockstep, Republicans in Congress demand that the Democrats drop their investigations into other matters around Trump, such as his taxes, his businesses, his foundation. His allies at Fox News demand apologies from those in the liberal media who embraced the conspiracy canard. Woolly minded analysts declare the cloud over his presidency has lifted.

Not so fast.

Everything you have heard — Attorney General Bill Barr’s four-page letter, Trump’s confident interpretation, the instant chorus of taunts and cheers — has come from Republicans. This is their story, and they are telling it.

But they shout and snort minus Mueller’s report and the evidence he gathered. They argue on the basis of Barr’s interpretation of Mueller’s report. Trust me, he says.

Barr may be honourable, but he is also wily and shrewd. He is a Republican, a judicial conservative, appointed by Trump, whom he wants to re-elect. Barr decides what parts of the report will be released. He controls the narrative, and we accept his interpretation because, for now, it is the only version of events we have. Many are falling for this.

Meanwhile, the emerging narrative emboldens Trump. As his former adviser Stephen Bannon says, Trump “is going to go full animal” — unarraigned, unashamed and unconstrained.

Trump has long rid himself of his troublesome priests, or those around him who counselled moderation, such as Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, Jim Mattis and H.R. McMaster. He surrounds himself with yes men and is free to give voice to his worst instincts — and he will.

Expect him to issue more pardons, make more allegations, reverse more long-standing policies, for example on Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights. He will treat Mueller’s report as licence to do whatever he wants.

Watching this, Democrats are retrenching but not retreating. It will be harder for them to pursue impeachment — as Nancy Pelosi and others had already been saying — but they will conduct several simultaneous inquiries. More dangerous for Trump, the focus will shift to law enforcement authorities in New York and California. These will have a broader mandate than Mueller’s.

The coming congressional investigations — holding public hearings, calling witnesses, assembling evidence — may not be as singularly explosive as the collusion case was. But Democrats have an agonizing capacity to draw blood, over and over again, spilling into next year.

At the same time, they will continue to act as a government-in-exile — advancing proposals on health care, campaign practices, the environment and other items on their progressive agenda.

Mueller may have “exonerated” Trump on charges of obstruction of justice, but he cannot lift the burden of doubt and odour of corruption. Donald Trump remains who he is, carrying all the baggage of vanity and vulgarity that keeps his popularity under water.

The Democrats can no longer beat him with collusion, but they have other sticks, and they will use them. This isn’t going away.