This Russia Thing.

• Author: Durst, Will
• Position: OFF THE MAP - Essay

As Donald Trump enters the second year of his presidency, problems are stacking up around him. It's like he's been delivered a bouquet of bombs from the Acme Corporation being wafted aloft by helium balloons approaching an archery range for the easily distracted.

Trump's first year was marked by division, derision, indecision, and lack of supervision. He's had more missteps than the last-place finisher in a drunken hopscotch tournament played on cobblestones. Blindfolded.

The most recent stumble was the fitness question which author Michael Wolff described in his book Fire and Fury as infecting 100 percent of White House insiders who believe their boss is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic. The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead. Snuck into the gene pool while the lifeguard was chatting up the girl who runs the hot dog stand.

Overall, the New York City realestate developer has proven that no matter how many governments he antagonizes, family members he insults, staffers he alienates, his own worst enemy is... himself. Attempting to stem the story's backlash, the President of the United States tweeted (and these are real quotes) that he is "like, really smart" and a "very stable genius"--a statement that can best be interpreted as meaning he's a genius around horse manure.

But these are idle distractions, compared to 45's legal problems, which have multiplied like the brooms in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." Numerous Congressional investigations and a special counsel appointed already--the guy has gone from zero to Nixon in under a year.

Early grand jury indictments by Robert Mueller included something called "Conspiracy against the United States." That sounds like "fake news" the same way "flesh-eating bacteria" sounds like a skin balm.

Conspiracy was only one of twelve charges filed against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, also accused of money-laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent, not paying taxes, and being such a smug, greedy S.O.B. that he makes Bernie Madoff look like a bleeding-heart social worker who ministers to sick puppies.

Lower down the food chain, Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was arrested in July of 2017, a fact that became known in October. He is described in...