Harvard Law's Jack Goldsmith (former Office of Legal Counsel under GW Bush) on what has "surprised" him about Trump

Here:

[S]everal things have surprised me. I wasn’t prepared for the extent of the onslaught. It’s really just remarkable how many things they’re doing, especially inside the executive branch, to try to bring complete control of the president.

And I wasn’t expecting the extent of the loyalty tests and the insistence that the president gets to determine what the law is and that there’s no independent legal check....

[The Office of Legal Counsel] has been basically set aside and the White House is interpreting law, and the basic rule appears to be if the president wants to do something, it’s lawful.

That really does seem to be the operating principle. So the extent of that surprises me. The extortionate elements of the administration, the shakedown elements. They remind me of a book I wrote about Hoffa and the mob. That has all surprised me.

If Professor Goldsmith has been following the blog, that last bit would not have surprised him!