President Trump’s mentor, the colorful controversialist Roy Cohn, once said: “I bring out the worst in my enemies and that’s how I get them to defeat themselves.”

If this is Trump’s strategy, those who jeered Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a Mexican restaurant or protested at her home have been playing their part effectively. They apparently believe that intensity of conviction is demonstrated by incivility, just as Robert De Niro seems to think that conviction is proven by crudity. This is childish but not harmless. It is one more step in the personalization of political anger. One more method to turn fellow citizens into bitter enemies.

But Nielsen gets it from all sides. She is not just harassed during meals and family time, but also during the working day. At a May Cabinet meeting, Trump berated her for half an hour about the pace of illegal border crossings, causing other Cabinet members, by one account, to start “fidgeting in their seats and flashing grimaces.” Nielsen, according to some sources, momentarily thought about resigning. Sometimes your first thought is the best one.