Main Paineframe posted:

In order to fire people who aren't politically reliable, he has to be able to reliably identify people who aren't politically reliable, and the lower you go the more difficult this gets, especially when you're seen as hostile towards the agency or undermining the agency. And arrests? It's not like Trump has a folder full of blackmail material on intelligence officials, and he can't very well order them to investigate themselves.

The problem with the "debilitating leaks" scenario is that it assumes there's anything they could leak that could damage his legitimacy any more than the stuff he already does openly with no attempt to hide it. Unless they catch him personally murdering someone on video, I don't think anything would really stick - and even then, he might get away with it depending on the skin color and socioeconomic status of the victim.

Donald Trump isn't going to destroy our democracy. He doesn't need to. He's not going to undermine the military or the intel agencies, because they're not a serious threat to him - they might push back against specific policies, but they won't take overt action against his entire presidency.