“If Trump loses this election, then I think it’ll prove that perhaps we’re not in a Trump era and that it may have just been a fluke,” D’Ambrosio said. “If he wins this election, though, I think that he’ll solidify himself as a very consequential figure, if not the most consequential figure of this century to date.”

If the president is unable to properly control his own branch — if he is forced to tolerate an array of rogue bureaucrats who think taking matters into their own hands is somehow akin to saving the republic — then the Editorial Board is unfortunately correct: The president is really little more than a figurehead.