So now, as Trump faces yet another attack of bad news on multiple fronts (his border wall looks dead, he’s threatening to shut down the government, his popular defense secretary has resigned in protest over his outrageous withdraw from Syria, and the stock market is in near collapse), there is once again speculation over whether now Trump, finally, is going to see at least some crumbling within his political foundation. On the surface, there are good reasons to think this time might be different.

After all, these are all issues — the wall, Mattis resigning, and stocks — which are extremely important to different elements of the Republican base, and there have been some signs that even the state-run media is in a small revolt. In a rational world, in the next couple of weeks he could theoretically lose at least 5 points off of his approval rating, and maybe even more when you consider that the holidays are a time when one disgruntled former Trump supporter at a family get-together could cause a domino effect of dissent from within “Cult 45.”