McMaster: Many White House staffers seek to either manipulate Trump or save him- and the country- from himself

President Trump's former National Security Advisor, Gen. H.R. McMaster, says that some of his former colleagues in the administration constitute "a threat to the Constitution."

He divides these into two categories: those who seek to manipulate the president in support of their own agendas, and those who are trying to save the country from him.

I get the impression that what concerns him in both cases is that Mr. Trump is not the guy who ends up calling the shots, which is, after all, what he was elected to do. I don't believe that the general intends this as a criticism of the president.

But it is. Neither Mr. Trump nor his true believers would be particularly pleased by an image of him as someone who can be manipulated by his underlings. And neither would they be pleased by the thought that even members of his own administration see the President of the United States as someone from whom the country needs saving!

Gen. McMaster has been described as the world's "preeminent warrior-thinker." Mr. Trump dismissed him in March, finding him  "gruff and condescending," "aggressive," and "prone to lecture." John Bolton succeeded him as Assistant to the President for National Security.

But the picture of the president as an egotistical but weak chief executive who is easily manipulated and whose decisions are ignored or altered by his subordinates in order to protect not only the country but Mr. Trump's own interests is precisely the one that the Mueller Report paints, based on the testimony of numerous present and past members of the administration. And it's a disturbing one.

The truly dedicated among Mr. Trump's base will never accept the notion that the emperor wears no clothes. The strong, decisive, fearless leader who is firmly in command is very much a central part of the president's self-image, and lies at the core of the image his supporters insist on maintaining of him no matter what the evidence.

But the observations of his former National Security Advisor- observations which I'm not sure are even intended by him to be a direct criticism of Mr. Trump- once more reinforce a disturbing picture of the Trump White House which it's becoming increasingly difficult not to fear has too much truth in it for comfort.