President Donald Trump is likely to escalate his wrongdoing following his impeachment acquittal, conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot explained on Saturday.
"Twice in the past year he has barely survived scandals that should have doomed his presidency: once after the Mueller report was less scathing than expected or warranted, then again after the Republican-controlled Senate refused to convict him of two articles of impeachment," Boot wrote.
"Each time he should have emulated President Bill Clinton’s example by apologizing for his conduct, asking forgiveness and trying to bring the country together," he suggested. "But Trump has sought retribution rather than reconciliation, culminating in a 'Friday night massacre' of the witnesses who testified against him."
"Trump is a sore winner," Boot declared.
The columnist blasted those who allow Trump to get away with wrongdoing.
"There was, predictably, no public pushback to these decisions from within the administration, because Trump is now surrounded by political invertebrates. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acquiesced to Sondland’s firing just as he acquiesced in the far more offensive campaign waged by Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to recall career Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who retired in late January. If national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien made any effort to protect a war hero from a draft-dodger president, there is no indication of it," he noted.
Boot seemed to suggest Trump's purge was like the famous baptism scene in the hit 1972 movie "The Godfather."
"What happened Friday was the political equivalent of one of those mob-movie montages where the don’s enemies are gunned down to the accompaniment of an operatic score," he wrote. "And the Don in the White House isn’t done yet."
"Trump is unchastened, unchained and unhinged. I fear for the future of our democracy with such a vindictive bully wielding the awesome powers of the presidency with less and less restraint. He is making an example of all those who have exposed his misconduct in the past to ensure that he can get away with even greater wrongdoing in the future," Boot wrote.