In firing the director of the FBI while the bureau is investigating possible criminal collusion between his election campaign and Russian state operatives, Donald Trump has gone down a path from which there may be no return.
Why is this so bad, some might ask? The President has the power to fire the FBI director. And James Comey, the man in question, was clearly in the wrong when he announced during the election campaign last fall that the FBI had found a new cache of e-mails involving Hillary Clinton, and that it was reopening its probe into her use of a private server while she was secretary of state.
The e-mails proved to be of no consequence, but many people felt strongly that Mr. Comey's move – which violated FBI policy and came just days before the election – helped swing the vote in Mr. Trump's favour. Angry Democrats called for the director's head, and now they are suddenly upset that the President has fired him.
Read more: Comey, Trump and the firing fallout: Five things to know
Mr. Trump calls them hypocrites. Fair enough. But he is only doing so to distract from the inescapable fact that the President has fired the director of the FBI while the FBI is carrying out an active criminal investigation into his inner circle.
This is unpardonable. This is what despots do. And, as was almost to be expected, Mr. Trump's justifications for firing Mr. Comey are already unravelling.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that he personally decided to fire Mr. Comey, a day after his original claim that he did so on the advice of the Department of Justice. And the acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, testified Thursday that Mr. Comey had the confidence of the rank-and-file in the bureau, contradicting Mr. Trump's claim that Mr. Comey could not "effectively lead the bureau."
Mr. McCabe also said that the criminal investigation into the Trump campaign continues, and that it is "highly significant."
Mr. Trump has violated so many of the norms of the office of President that some people may see this latest insult as of a piece.
But this is far more ominous than anything he has done to date, and it cements any previous concerns about his fitness to lead. Were the 45th President of the United States to be forced from office before his term expired, the events of this week might well be remembered as the beginning of that premature end.