Trump savoring his series of sudden victories

Trump presented himself as the ultimate winner, the man that the establishment could not kill despite bankruptcies, personal scandals and quarrels.

He now faces the biggest prosecutor of his generation, Mueller, the ultimate right-arrow son of the establishment – and survives, feat that will not fail to reinforce his political legend among his supporters.

Trump's associates who go to jail through Mueller's probe or who have been exposed as criminals are all collateral damage.

Because with Trump, what does not defeat him makes him stronger. And he's definitely enjoying his best days since winning the 2016 election.

A presidency born in a scandal and often having trouble getting to the end of the day without another scandal disrupting the norms or a political disaster, breathes in an unusual way a pure political oxygen.

Each of these triumphs comes with new reservations and challenges.

The absolute validation claimed by Mueller by the White House is actually much more problematic than Trump's claims. No one outside the Department of Justice has yet seen Mueller's full report, which means that Trump's Attorney General, William Barr, had the courage to define the political narrative with his resume.

But in politics, perception is paramount.

Trump's assistants spent most of the day in Monday's West Wing beaming with relief. And the president suddenly sees victory everywhere.

A day after learning that Mueller was failing to find enough evidence to accuse him of colluding with Russia and would not decide whether he had obstructed justice, Trump welcomed the Cup champions Stanley of the NHL at the Oval Office.

"They are winners, they know how to win," said the US president about the Washington Capitals franchise, which finally broke his series of trivia last June.

As is often the case when he praises others, Trump seemed to identify the qualities he believed he possessed, in unheard-of quantities, himself.

What now for Trump?

The question now is what Trump does with his victory.

A conventional political game would be to seek to heal the country's political wounds and broaden its support above the solid ceiling in the low 40% range of polls, which rarely decreases, but may not be enough to be re-elected.

But Trump still refuses the conventional presidential behavior. In fact, his willingness to do so helped ignite his nightmare at Mueller with the dismissal of FBI director James Comey, which led to the appointment of the special council.

It seems likely that the lesson he will learn from his apparent reprieve from Mueller is that there is no price to give in to his instinct, a reality that puts in place what is likely to be a vicious and combative race. in 2020.

Trump was already raging, given the departure of senior Cabinet appointees, perceived as restrictive influences, and his dominance of Republican roots and his ability to crush dissent within his party.

It is clear now that he sees his rush with political mortality as a validation of an aggressive leadership style rooted in a radical executive power and in practice to humiliate his political enemies.

On Monday, during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump seemed more embittered than jubilant in the face of the outcome of the Mueller case investigation that seemed unlikely as recently as last week.

"There are people who have done very bad things, very bad – I would say betrayals – against our country," Trump warned.

"Let's hope that the people who have done so much harm to our country – we have gone through a period of very bad things – these people will certainly be examined," he said.

It was not clear who the president was referring to. But he has often protested against former Obama officials, Comey, former intelligence chiefs and former leaders of the Justice Department.

His remarks evoked the troubling prospect of a president in office using his power to pursue his action in retaliation against his political enemies – a reality that would once again tear the security barriers that traditionally surround the presidency.

Trump's advisers did everything possible to attack the media, claiming that they had falsely reported allegations of collusion between the Russians and that they had sworn to hunt down the Democrats for the issue at the polls. Approaching the 2020 elections.

"I think you'll see (Trump) use this as a political club," Alisyn Camerota, the White House's former White House aide, told New Day.

The risk for Trump is that some voters – especially those in the critical boroughs of the suburbs in the mid-term elections of 2018 – have rejected the president's constant war and inflammatory speeches. Starting the 2020 race with a similar approach, rather than a positive message about a healthy economy, would worry many GOP strategists.

Democrats cry scandal

Opponents to Trump point out that Mueller's victory over the president is far less clear than the White House says, though some are forced to admit that Mueller's prosecutor's ruling is good despite ample evidence of suspicious contacts between Russians and Russians. Trump associates.

Even the brief summary of the Mueller report by Barr does not completely "exonerate" Trump from obstruction as the White House claims, thus extending the truth in a characteristic way.

The Democrats are urging Barr to release the entire report in order to allow them to review the evidence that Mueller found for obstructing justice in particular, so that they can judge for themselves whether they will be able to do so. They deserve an indictment.

"He has now done the job for which he had applied, which is to exonerate Mr. Trump when Mr. Mueller declared that no exemption was admissible," said Manu Raju, chairman of the board. Council of intelligence of the House, intelligence of the Chamber of Deputies.

The quality of Trump's victory could be altered once the details of Mueller's findings are known, though they include substantial evidence of questionable ethical behavior that is just right. below a criminal standard.

But for now, the shocking central fact of the investigation on Russia – that the president was elected with the help of a hostile foreign power, Russia, assailant attacks against the American democracy – is lost in trouble in Washington.

This is perhaps Trump's biggest victory.