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When the Trump guardrails fall
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While US President Donald Trump's first term saw his advisers rein him in, his current term has seen him do things he was previously stopped from doing.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Michael S. Schmidt
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Since Mr Donald Trump first became president in 2017, I have written many articles – and even a book – that focused on the efforts by his aides to contain his impulses and stop him from waging a retribution campaign against his enemies.
Throughout my reporting, I – like many journalists in the midst of an intense and complex story – wondered: Was I accurately capturing the facts? I knew that the people around Mr Trump often justified working in his administration by saying they would serve as guardrails against his most extreme impulses, but how could I know for sure that these checks on his power were actually the force holding him back?
