director, James B. Comey; his disclosure of highly sensitive intelligence to the Russians;
and his plea to Mr. Comey to drop the bureau’s investigation of his fired national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn — Mr. Trump has found shelter on the right, where the collective judgment of the conservative media and the Republican Party so far seems to be to dismiss the allegations as “fake news,” shift the blame and change the subject.
Trump supporters “see the news media and the establishment as one of those airlines dragging them down the aisle, bloodying them,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist, who said
that Mr. Trump’s foes often fail to understand how their criticism can backfire.
“They’re going to say that Donald Trump has Alzheimer’s,” said the president’s friend
and longtime associate Roger Stone, who made an online video laying out how the president’s own cabinet could trigger a never-used provision of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to stage a coup on the grounds that Mr. Trump is mentally unsound.
“And when they assault him, it validates the idea that he’s the only thing there to protect us from them.”
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