Donald Trump is about to redefine the lame-duck presidency.
Donald Trump won’t be able to cope. If he loses control of one chamber of Congress, never mind both, the world will see a personality collapse and rage meltdown on the scale of the final sequence of the Lord of the Rings.
The Donald Trump of 2018 could cope, barely. Back then, he had a number of things going for him. First, although Republicans suffered heavy losses in the House, they gained two seats in the Senate. Trump interpreted the Senate gains as proof that “people like me,” and the House losses as a rebuke to Trump-disloyal Republicans. “Mia Love,” he said of a Republican who lost her seat in Utah, “gave me no love, but then she lost. Too bad.” Second, the Trump of 2018 had the benefit of a strong economy. The war he was fighting in Iraq and Syria was going well and commanded broad bipartisan support, given that it had started under President Obama.
