The raid on Mar-a-Lago could shake America’s foundations

“Another day in paradise,” Donald Trump cheerfully observed after fbi agents raided his home in Florida as part of a criminal investigation. There is no reason to assume he was being sarcastic. The raid had conjured a Trumpian Eden: the nation’s eyes were riveted upon him once again; Republican legislators who had been edging away rallied behind him, as did potential rivals for the Republican presidential nomination; some of his supporters were again calling online for a civil war to defend their champion. Mr Trump was able to present himself in his favourite light, as the victim of dark, partisan forces out to protect the establishment by dragging him down. Having trashed the fbi and Department of Justice for years, he had prepared not just his core believers but probably half the country to suspect that the rule of law was being undermined, not honoured.