The gravest and most repeated failure in the Trump era is that everyone underestimates him. People think he will never cross lines until it is too late and he crosses them.

Trump is firing officials who have constitutional power to remove him. It is not that he hates Esper.

Esper prepared a resignation letter but Trump fired him anyway. This kind of conduct allows Trump to make bogus claims like he “lost confidence” in the Department, and thus doesn’t want to elevate a Senate-appointed deputy to the top job. He has done it for four years.

Trump may have been annoyed with Esper for dissent on using military on protestors, but Trump could have fired him in July, August, September, October for that. Don’t even try the “but the optics” argument. We are talking about the worst optics person in the history of politics.

Media needs to reckon with the 25th Amendment and its importance. If Trump were to do something unexpected—especially in the event of an international incident or worse—that would be the only quick remedy to remove the most compromised President in US history from office.