monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

That is indeed an interesting question, rev.

A big part of the answer is that some percentage of any population respond positively to an authoritarian (188) figure. They are most comfortable being led by a father-figure. Celebrity worship is likely an aspect of this tendency. Past that, it's the influence of right wing misinformation.

I see that Senate Republicans have voted to expand gun access for the mentally impaired. Such a great idea. That will keep Americans safe.

"If a specific individual is likely to be violent due to the nature of their mental illness, then the government should have to prove it," Grassley said, according to the news service.

The NRA and the American Civil Liberties Unionalso opposed Obama's rule — the NRA for its restrictions on the Second Amendment, the ACLU for the possibility it would stereotype the mentally ill as violent.

Nearly a month into his presidency, Donald Trump is failing by practically every metric. His White House is facing a deeply serious scandal; his National Security Advisor has been forced out; members of his campaign team are facing a counter-espionage investigation; and polls show the American mainstream rejecting what they're seeing out of the West Wing.

The result is something of a test for the new president. How does Trump respond under pressure? Can he show grace under fire?

...So far, it’s not going well.

Quote:

President Donald Trump blamed “conspiracy theories and blind hatred” — and an attempt to “cover-up” for Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign — in a series of tweets Wednesday morning as he tried to distance himself from any links to Russia.

Trump tweeted that the “fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred,” and added that “this Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.”

He's still fighting his battle on the election he's already won.

Brandon9000 dropping in for a contentless motivational speech:

"Stay the course. Ignore any criticism. Don't respond to anything. All of this is completely normal."

Congressman [Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)] says constituents asking for a town hall are ‘enemies’ of democracy
He also accused them of “political thuggery.”

“I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done,” Trump told a reporter in 2015. “I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off… You don’t have time to take time off.”