Has the Trump White House entered a death spiral?

If Trump insists on disregarding sound advice from his staffers in favor of dumb advice from family, his decisions will get worse, not that they were great to begin with, and more and more people will leave the White House only to be replaced by less competent hires. While the lure of the White House is huge and someone will always say yes to a job there, the quality of newcomers is going to plummet. People see how poorly Trump treats his hires. (This wasn’t so clear back when Trump was in the private sector, and employees had to sign onerous non-disclosure agreements.) When they displease him, he lets it be known in public. This week, he even told The New York Times that he regretted making Jeff Sessions attorney general.

As competence diminishes and the dependence on family increases, performance will get even worse, and Trump will increasingly follow his whims. Indications are strong that Trump itches daily to fire Mueller, which would set off a giant mess. “If Trump doesn’t fire Mueller, it will only be because every other day he’s talked out of following his instincts,” writes Rich Lowry in the National Review. And we can see now how much that advice matters. If Trump goes that far, even Republicans will start to sour openly on their president. Partisanship runs strong, and checks on the White House come far too late when the majority party is that of the sitting president, especially if it’s the Republican Party. But they come eventually. Republicans live here, too.