When Donald Trump expressed his frustration about the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s influence in the 2016 election and whether or not members of the Trump campaign “colluded” with the Russians, it was fair for him to do so. Many times the media ran with any tidbit they came across, hoping it would be the one card that would bring the rest of the house down.

While it is understandable the president is frustrated with current events; it doesn’t give him license to lash out at those conducting a duly authorized investigation. Donald Trump set the wheels in motion for the Mueller investigation when he chose to fire James Comey. The guy who says he “hires the best people” hired several people who aren’t the best and they became targets of Mueller’s investigation. Trump continues to make it worse as he is now attacking Mueller by name and lashing out at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as well as keeping up his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump still doesn’t fathom that just because some members of the executive branch serve at his pleasure, their duty is to the Constitution of the United States. Trump believes their first order of business is allegiance to him and then the pesky Constitution stuff. It serves as a reminder that Trump is about Trump, first and foremost. Instead of reflecting and asking himself why he’d hire people like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, he instead blames the forces out to supposedly get him based on personal vendettas. Trump managed to make Jeff Sessions into a sympathetic figure as Trump launches verbal attacks on his Attorney General with impunity. Following the raid on Michael Cohen’s office, Trump said of Sessions, “The Attorney General made a terrible mistake when he did this and when he recused himself or he certainly should have let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different Attorney General in.” Sessions did what any lawyer with ethics would do and upheld his allegiance to the Constitution, and for that, he gets Trump vitriol.

That’s how Trump sees the Mueller investigation. Trump believes it is personal and political. It’s why he attacks Mueller’s team as a bunch of Democrats. Reporting revealed some of Mueller’s staff made cash donations to Hillary Clinton. Naturally, Trump (and his fanbase) believe these prosecutors who have worked to put away terrorists and members of the mob are suddenly going to risk their reputations and careers so they can engage in a political witch hunt? It’s absurd. The amusing irony, of course, is Trump likely donated more to Hillary Clinton than all of Mueller’s team members combined.

Trump’s attitude is the reason the dunce House Intelligence Committee chairman and Donald Trump palace guard member, Devin Nunes, dared to suggest Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray could get impeached. That’s the environment we live in nowadays, thanks to President Trump. The President lashed out at Robert Mueller after the raid on Cohen’s office. Trump first said it was a “break-in” and then referred to Cohen as a “good man” as if no reason existed to conduct the raid. Out in the pro-Trump fever swamps, people are suggesting Mueller’s motives for the Cohen raid are so he can sniff around the privileged communications between Cohen and Trump. As if Mueller has nothing better to do than waste his time nosing around in what Trump and his fixer lawyer are saying to each other.

The ramifications of Trump’s attack on the rule of law are not fully known. But it won’t have a positive ending. Trump will push the boundaries, putting the three branches of government on a collision course. When that happens, the end result will be ugly.

And the country will suffer as a result.