ELECTION/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “By multiple accounts, Donald Trump is in one of the deepest funks of his presidency. The bad news is that the challenges and threats that are making his mood so dark are likely to get worse before they get better. The President is angry at his rebuke from voters in the midterm elections. The oppressive prospect of action by special counsel Robert Mueller hangs like an immovable cloud over his White House. Staff chaos in the West Wing is producing lurid palace intrigue stories in the media that the President hates. Abroad, he feuds with allied world leaders, and he’s been so effective in implementing his ‘America First’ policy that he’s the odd man out at summits. And things are unlikely to improve quickly. Many legal observers expect new indictments to come soon in the Mueller probe, potentially bringing the investigation closer to Trump’s inner circle in its final stages. The President fulminated over the probe on Thursday morning, calling it on Twitter ‘A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!’ Democrats are prepping a barrage of investigations that will make life in his White House a misery — from attempts to seize his tax returns and probe his business dealings to investigations into key policy areas like immigration.”
–Stephen Collinson, “For Trump, there’s no easy way out of his funk,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, November 14, 2018 1:00 pm