He'll do the same to anyone who shows serious interest in running for president against him in 2020.
Naturally, Democrats will want to defend themselves. Naturally, they'll also want to attack Trump.
If they flip the House they'll use their subpoena power to dredge up whatever dirt on him they can find -- summoning his tax records, Robert Mueller, Mueller's investigative findings -- and perhaps even beginning impeachment proceedings.
Trump and his Republican enablers will fight back, condemning Democrats for weakening America, engaging in fishing expeditions and witch hunts. Trump and his lawyers will tie up the subpoenas in court, claiming executive privilege.
Aspiring Democratic candidates for president will join in the brawl.
Op-ed writers, editorial boards, and pundits will argue over the best ways for Democrats to proceed against Trump -- going low or going high. Pollsters will tell us which Democratic candidate is seen as being most effective against him.
But all of this is a giant trap. It accepts and enforces Trump's worldview -- that nothing is more important than Donald Trump, that he embodies all that's good (or bad) about America, and that our most significant choice is to be for him or against him.
It allows Trump to continue to dominate the news and occupy the center of the nation's attention.
We'd talk about nothing else for two years. We won't be discussing how to restore wage growth, get health insurance to all Americans, reverse climate change, or get big money out of politics.
We won't be envisioning how a new America can widen opportunity, expand voting rights, end racism, reduce poverty, and work constructively with the rest of the world.
We won't be aspiring to be more than we were before Trump. We'll debate and dissect the damage done since Trump.
Of course Democrats have to fight him. But they also have to lift America beyond him.
The central question shouldn't be whether we're pro- or anti-Trump, or whether we go low or high in fighting him.
The question is where America should go -- and what we, together, can become.
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