Pressure mounting on PresidentTrump
WILL the events of this week prove to be the beginning of the end for Donald Trump?
That certainly seems to be a serious possibility.
The conviction of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort on eight fraud charges and the guilty pleas of his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to crimes which include paying hush money to two women with whom the President is alleged to have had sexual relationships are highly damaging.
Cohen has already confirmed that he will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team, who are assembling evidence about Russian interference in the 2016 election that put Trump in the White House.
The extraordinary support offered by the President to Manafort – a man who failed to pay millions of dollars in tax while spending lavishly – suggests Trump is aware that his former campaign manager could provide damaging information to Mueller’s team.
There has, of course, been a drip of discreditable revelations relating to Trump for well over a year – in fact from before he was elected.
But the convictions of two men who had been members of his inner circle bring danger closer to the White House.
Ever since Trump was elected, his opponents have dreamed of impeachment as a way of removing him from office.
But impeachment is a political tool rather than a judicial one, and at present the numbers are not in place to ensure success: currently the Republican Party controls both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and while there are some Republican discontents, there aren’t enough to secure a conviction.
That’s why so much will depend on the result of the mid-term elections in November. If the Democrats win control of both Houses, Trump will be in greater peril. The Democrats would be keen to take advantage of any opportunity that offered itself in the light of further revelations from Mueller.
As things stand, however, there is no certainty that the Democrats will do as well as they would like. Older people – more likely to favour Trump and the Republicans – are much more likely to turn out to vote than Democrats.
Nevertheless, the prospect of a successful impeachment increases with every new development, and there are signs that Trump’s demons are closing in.
For all his bravado, the President must feel the pressure rising.