@maporsche,
I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly think he has and really only through this game he's playing with Sessions. Senators in general and Republican Senators in particular take the notion of the Senate being a Grand Club quite seriously and Trump has been treating one of their own very shabbily.
He can't and should not rule by fiat so legislative support is essential. He'll get none of it from the Dems, so he needs every Republican in Congress to support him. They may be close to dropping like flies.
Trump has faced an unprecedented level of opposition but I don't think it can be denied that he has been ably assisting the Resistance by constantly firing away at his own feet.
Some sort of shake up of the White House was expected (at least by me) and necessary, but, with the Mooch at the helm, it's looking like an implosion rather than a shake-up
Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't started to see warnings from the Usual Suspects in the MSM and here that Trump is now more dangerous than ever. Maybe their just enjoying his difficulties and will wait until he is even more boxed in.
I once corned a tiny chipmunk in an effort to shoo him out of my garage. Didn't mean to, but that's where he ran (which, come to think, of it seems like a stupid move for an animal in fear for his life). In any case as I tried to "brush" him out of the corner with the broom I was carrying he launched himself in a prodigious leap for my throat. Now maybe he really only made it as high as my waist or chest, but it was clear he meant me harm and I instinctively lurched backwards and then stumbling, fell to the floor. Chip (or Dale perhaps) scooted out of the garage to freedom. I wish I can say it was all part of my plan and that I didn't have the crap scared out of me by a tiny rodent, but that would be a lie.
I've also learned over the decades of my career that if a person feels he or she has been forced into a "fight or flight" situation, they will more often fight than flee, although the fight tends to be expressed in passive aggressive ways. A Vice President of a company I worked for as a branch manager advised all of us managers that anyone not meeting all of about 20 separate goals for a metric based on an average of payments made, they would be fired. It was an absurdly draconian edict as for very sound reasons no one had ever made all 20 goals and it was impossible to do so...without cheating. At the time of the edict I had already given my two weeks notice as I had secured a position in another company, so, fortunately, my integrity was never put to the test. Before I left though I had farewell conversations with no few of my fellow managers. All of them expressed anger and frustration over the edict, and half of them hadn't arrived at a decision on how to react, but the other half had done so immediately: At random, they would issue checks in very minimal amount which would drive down the average. Of course it was a clear violation of any number of company policies, but their rationale was that the amounts would be so insignificant that there would be no harm to the company. The person receiving the check would not be harmed, and if they returned it because they had no idea why they received it, the payment would already have served to reduce the average. They to a person expressed the belief that the VP had forced them to take this unethical action. They had families to support and careers to maintain and they weren't going to let some jackass VP in the Home Office screw them over with an impossible set of goals. Of note is the fact that most of the managers who decided to resort to this scheme were otherwise completely ethical and in other circumstances would never even think to pull such a stunt. It was a scenario I observed on several subsequent occasions and was a lesson learned that has served me well in my career.
My point is that creatures will do very unexpected and drastic things when they feel cornered. I certainly get your desire to see Trump remain in office for his entire term, albeit in an emasculated state. However Trump is not likely to comfortably settle into a Lame Duck presidency for the next 3.5 years. Should he find himself truly cornered (he's not there at present) how he will react can only be speculated upon, but whatever route he takes it could be dramatic and unexpected.
I imagine he would follow Obama's lead and use his pen and cellphone (along with his twitter account) to attempt to rule by fiat and thus create a fragile Trump Legacy that the next president will proceed to shatter, starting on Day One. However, depending on what advice he gets, he could follow a more extreme path. I'm not predicting anything, merely engaging in speculative fiction, but sooner or later this country is bound to have another would-be dictator (the first being Woodrow Wilson). The difference between Trump and Wilson though is that Wilson had a compliant Congress to assist him in his effort; Trump will not. That would leave the most fearful of scenarios, involvement of the military. Something drastic would need to happen though before the military would even entertain for one second going along with something like martial law, and this is where Conspiracy Kooks can have a field day.
Again, I'm not predicting any such thing, and I don't think there's a snowball's chance of it happening, but sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, if Trump's isolation becomes more severe and he finds himself effectively neutered in terms of a legislative agenda, some columnist in the Washington Post (probably Eugene Robinson or Dana Milbank) is going to issue a chilling warning. (If they haven't done so already and I just missed it)
