The fall of the House of Trump
I mean, as our own Progressive Techie said, that was the action which caused his descent, both literally and figuratively.
He didn't have to descend that escalator. He could have laughed off President Barack Obama's evisceration of him at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. But no. A n***er dared to mock him. It didn't matter that he was president. At the end of the day he was just another Black man who had to be cut down to size. It was more than his ego which was wounded; it was his perception of himself as superior to anyone of Pres. Obama's complexion. He was already a birther. But now with this savage mockery, Donald Trump made it his mission to undo everything Pres. Obama had done. He was driven by that one goal. Nothing else mattered.
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. And that's what the Powers That Be did to Trump. His fixation with Pres. Obama is the motive force which has led to his downfall. As I've written before: he could have kept banging porn stars and laundering Russian money with probably no repercussions. He could have kept living his sordid life. But his psyche couldn't live with what Pres. Obama did to him. It was a scar across his soul, and he had to find some way to heal it.
Joe Biden sought the presidency out of a sense of duty. He knew he was best positioned to restore this country. Donald Trump sought the presidency for revenge. You can see the results for yourselves. Pres. Biden is on route to becoming one of the most consequential presidents in the country's history. Trump is having his life upturned because he never did anything with his time in office save try to settle scores. As Michelle Obama said, the presidency reveals you. It revealed Trump to be what we'd always known he was: a petty grifter with pretensions of greatness.
As with all tragedy, the protagonist's fall is due to his own hubris. His own actions undo him. It's no different with Trump. His ego and his racism were the qualities which began his downfall. Once they were triggered, the remainder of his life played out almost as if on autopilot. A man with no self-awareness is unable to discern the traps which lay ahead. He can see only unblemished victory on his path. When things inevitably downturn, he reacts with more and more panic. He can't think clearly; he commits more actions which speed up his downfall.
Trump's demise will be the subject of both art and analysis for decades to come. He is something America has never seen before. The Founders feared someone like him; they thought they had built a structure which would prevent his rise; they were wrong. But the structure has been, so far, strong enough to survive him. But Trump won't survive his actions.
As we await the denouement, we have to be calm. Things might move quickly, or they may not. But one doesn't raid a former president's house unless things are moving apace. We are in uncharted waters. There be dragons here.