Trump had a bad spring. At the beginning of COVID crisis, he gave long rambling statements at press conferences about COVID. Sometimes, he seemed like a semi-articulate old man. Other times, he looked frantic as he searched randomly for a scapegoat for his woes – China, liberals, the media, governors — while championing himself with the energy of 20-year old publicity agent hopped up on Adderall.

Then in the midst of a nation-wide expression of grief and frustration, he ordered the national guard to shoot a bunch of peaceful protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets. On national tv! We all saw it! All for the purpose of demonstrating strength with an outdoor press conference.

Then he took some awful pictures in front of a church awkwardly holding a bible. An image that birthed a hundred memes.

Now, we have Republican leaders starting to take public positions against him, and his polling numbers are dropping. It is not an accident that we haven’t seen Pence in weeks. They are protecting him from the Trump stain. It’s not an accident that we got that statement from Mattis yesterday. The Republican chess masters are moving the knights and the rooks.

This protest started off as emotional anger about racism and policing policies. Trump himself changed the conversation to make these protests into a statement about his competence as president, a reaction against totalitarianism, and the deep hunger for peace and consensus. Instead of fizzling out, these protests are snowballing.

Now that the looting and bad behavior is under control, I feel like I can attend a protest with my kid. Jonah and I will go to Manhattan on Saturday, when the work week is over. Hopefully, Steve can join us, but we’ll have to figure out what to do with Ian first. Taking an autistic person to a crowded, loud protest is a really bad idea. I have nightmares about him getting torn apart by a crowd, so Ian will have to stay home.

Now, the White House is surrounded by a fence. Finally, Donald Trump has his wall.