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editorial

As a general rule, when one is under investigation it is best not to publicly and loudly engage in behaviour that raises suspicions.

U.S. President Donald Trump must not have received this elementary advice from his increasingly erratic personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. Or maybe he’s just ignoring it.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump spent his morning in customary fashion, blasting out hostile tweets. One demanded that Attorney-General Jeff Sessions “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt” – that is, Robert Mueller’s investigation into, among other things, obstruction of justice involving the President.

Leaving aside that Mr. Sessions was the wrong person to ask, having long ago recused himself, one imagines the thudding of jaws onto desks in Mr. Mueller’s offices.

Mr. Trump’s political doom has been foretold many times, but it feels like the end-game may actually be nigh.

In recent days, the President’s social-media output has accelerated in both pace and feverishness. If he seems squirrelly, it could be because the court cases and investigations are stacking up like cordwood.

Last week, a Maryland judge approved a lawsuit that contends the Trump Hotel in Washington violates constitutional prohibitions on presidents accepting financial inducements from foreigners. The plaintiffs say they’ll ask to see Mr. Trump’s elusive tax returns in discovery.

It further emerged that Michael Cohen, the President’s long-time fixer, might well be on the verge of flipping for the prosecution. Then came word Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, was recently subpoenaed in a grand jury probe of Mr. Cohen.

It’s become fashionable to predict that malodorous business deals, and not Russian collusion, will be Mr. Trump’s undoing. We may know the answer soon.

In the interim, the political and legal morass engulfing Mr. Trump deepens. There’s also evidence his reckless trade spats are beginning to gnaw at the pocketbooks of his political base.

This can’t end well. The President’s behaviour suggests he knows it.

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