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Is the end drawing near for Trump? Friday Mar 31, 2017 at 5:03 PM � A few days ago, I was thinking of writing something here about whether Donald Trump will survive the four-year term as president to which he was elected this past November. A better question, I think now, is whether he will survive even his first year in office. Not only does The Donald increasingly find […] Pat Cunningham � A few days ago, I was thinking of writing something here about whether Donald Trump will survive the four-year term as president to which he was elected this past November. A better question, I think now, is whether he will survive even his first year in office. Not only does The Donald increasingly find himself in deep-doo with regard to Russian meddling in the recent election, but his performance of his presidential duties is less than exemplary, to put it mildly. Take health-care, for example. One of the cornerstones of Trump's campaign was his pledge to immediately repeal and replace Obamacare. Well, “immediately” turned into a couple of months, during which time the �task of writing a new law fell to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who botched the job badly. Ryan came up with a proposal that curried the favor of only 17 percent of the populace, according to polls. Even lots of Republican lawmakers turned thumbs down on the bill, and Ryan had to pull the plug on the issue before it came to a vote to avoid the ultimate embarrassment. But Trump supported the measure and threatened the naysayers with political revenge. Of course, nobody paid him any mind. Meanwhile, the president has been a busy beaver, issuing all sorts of executive orders that will harm the environment but please the polluters who have curried Trump's favor with lavish donations to his cause. Little or none of this will redound to the president's political benefit in the long run. Americans don't want the environment befouled by a president who's been bribed to do so. The fact that Trump has been performing his presidential duties in a manner that's not likely to win great public support as time goes by might well cost him dearly when push comes to shove on issues like the budding scandal concerning Russia. If that matter leads to more talk of impeachment, Trump is increasingly �less likely to have a reservoir of pubic affection on which he can lean for defense. The ultimate fact of the matter is that Trump is not just a disappointment to Americans in general. Lots of people simply dislike the man. After all, most folks did not vote for him to begin with. Then, too, the president's penchant for reckless tweeting at all hours of the day and night only make him appear unglued. In short, the man has become a joke — a bad joke. Oh, he still has a base of die-hard supporters, but their number is shrinking, and their ranks increasingly are dominated by poorly-informed cranks — like � the guy I saw on TV the other night who said the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were Barack Obama's fault. Trump's critics smell blood in � the water, and they're going to push hard for impeachment at the first good opportunity. If and when that happens, I don't see the president as well-prepared to stave off the challenge. In short, Trump's chances of lasting a full year as president seem highly iffy. � �