It was long clear that Donald Trump would be an incompetent president. But over the past week he has proven himself to be a dangerously incompetent president.
Now the Post reports that the day after he fired James Comey, Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador. U.S. officials apparently obtained the material, which concerned Islamic State plotting, from a foreign ally and did not have permission to share the information with Russia. Though few specific details could be reported, there are a variety of dangerous potential consequences.
Compounding the insult, the accounts in the Post suggest Trump may have revealed the information in order to boast to his foreign visitors about the quality of the intelligence briefings he receives, as if they would not have known that the president of the United States has access to impressive amounts of secret material.
Given his many business failures, the only realms in which Trump has proven himself adept are those of popular manipulation and treachery, along with the related arts of show business. No doubt he will use them in the coming days to mislead and scapegoat his way out of accountability.
Impeachment probably is not realistic, but Congress must engage in more aggressive investigation and checking and balancing. Republicans who attacked Hillary Clinton over the petty email server scandal will now show where their true concerns lie--with party or with country.
Editorial on 05/17/2017