Trump’s predicament recalls a scene in Ernest Hemingway’s novel, “The Sun Also Rises.”

“How did you go bankrupt,” one character asks another, who responds: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

So it is with Trump. Problems, some of them self-inflicted, that looked temporary and manageable have been compounded over time and are reaching a crisis point. Most important, he is losing flexibility to act just as Mueller expands his probe into Trump’s business empire as well as his 2016 campaign.