“His fragile ego has never been tested to this extent,” Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, told me. “As each day ends, Trump knows he’s one day closer to legal and financial troubles. Accordingly, we will all see his behavior deteriorate until it progresses into a full mental breakdown.”

In the estimation of Bandy Lee, the forensic psychiatrist from Yale who’s spent the last four years trying to warn the world about Trump, it’s not something that could happen. It’s something that is happening, that’s been happening. “We’re at a stage now where his detachment from reality is pretty much complete and his symptoms are as severe as can be,” she said. She likened Trump to “a car without functioning brakes.” It can look for a long time like it’s fine, and keep going, faster and faster, even outracing other cars. “But at the bottom of the hill,” Lee said, “it always crashes.”