Former Bush administration official ominously warns Trump's presidency 'will probably end in calamity'

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published 30 January 2017

A former Bush administration State Department counselor is sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump: "It will not get better," writes Eliot A. Cohen at The Atlantic. "It will get worse, as power intoxicates Trump and those around him."

The piece follows up President Trump's first week in office, which ended in widespread protests over an executive order banning legal U.S. residents from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the United States. Cohen's outlook is grim:

[Trump's presidency] will probably end in calamity — substantial domestic protest and violence, a breakdown of international economic relationships, the collapse of major alliances, or perhaps one or more new wars (even with China) on top of the ones we already have. It will not be surprising in the slightest if his term ends not in four or in eight years, but sooner, with impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. The sooner Americans get used to these likelihoods, the better. [The Atlantic]

"In the end, however, [Trump] will fail," Cohen adds. "He will fail because however shrewd his tactics are, his strategy is terrible — The New York Times, the CIA, Mexican Americans, and all the others he has attacked are not going away." Read the rest at The Atlantic.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.