It is a source of continuous and mounting frustration that President Trump has managed to sail through outrageous scandal after outrageous scandal. Trampling over the separation of powers, abusing executive authority and undermining the constitutional foundations of the US political system.

Thankfully there are signs that the system of constitutional checks and balances, which operates slowly but surely, are catching up with him. Currently there are some 29 investigations into the President which are all starting to close in.

The New York Times is tracking the investigations and their progress through the courts and the House. At the moment there are 10 Federal criminal investigations; 8 State and local investigations (important as there is no presidential pardon power available for these) and 11 congressional investigations.

They cover a diverse range of misdemeanours and felonies from the donations and  spending of the Trump inauguration committee; collusion in attempting to hide hush money payments; inappropriate offers of pardon; inflated asset values in insurance submissions; misuse of charitable assets of the now defunct Trump Foundation; personal tax violations; possible obstruction of justice; abuse of security clearance process and much more.

The President has tried to stone wall all of these processes to the extent of defying the law. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has a statutory right to ask for the tax returns of any person. The IRS under Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has refused to provide these. The Committee issued a subpoena to secure them. This was resisted. It then went to Federal court. The court have made clear that the Executive must comply with the subpoena.

Other court rulings have gone against the President relating to information requested from his accountants, Mazars, and his bankers, Deutche Bank.

Earlier this week he stormed out of a meeting with Democrats effectively saying he wouldn’t be doing any government until the investigations into him were stopped!

The heat is getting to him. Whilst in many ways this is welcome, it also carries real risk. A cornered Trump is likely to turn even more vicious and nasty than day to day Trump.