President Donald Trump made a telling if inadvertent admission (again!) in his reference to John Dean as a "rat." "Ratting" on the boss in the gangland world means revealing the truth about some crime committed by or in behalf of that boss, which it was the duty of the "rat" to help conceal. The president lauds White House Counsel Don McGahn for not being a "rat," which in the absence of something to hide, would be impossible for him in the first place!

To me, this implies guilty knowledge on Trump's part. Moreover, we get another insight into his thinking. John Dean helped expose his president's crime. This seems less weighty in Trump's view than the "disloyalty" Dean had shown toward President Nixon, the crime notwithstanding. Thus we see a president who sees himself not as a constitutionally empowered executive, but as a chieftain entitled to protection even against accountability for crimes. Far worse than "Sad."

Herbert Ross

Lyme