Trump's white male privilege has caused a constitutional crisis over the Mueller report

Anyone who’s been watching the Netflix-style reality drama that is Donald Trump’s White House knows by now that the main character likes to get his own way.

For years, he blasted Barack Obama’s use of executive orders (277 over eight years) – and then proceeded to sign them at greater frequency (105 in two years and three months). He huffed and puffed and shut down the government when he failed to get billions for a border wall. He vetoed legislators’ efforts to terminate US support for the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen, a blood-soaked operation that has created a humanitarian catastrophe, but which Congress never voted for.

Now Trump wants to get his way again. Confronted by a demand from Democrats that the attorney general provide a full, unredacted version of Robert Mueller’s Russia report, the president has sought to formally assert executive privilege over the document for the first time. This is his ball, he whined, and he no longer wants to play.

Democrats responded with the language of high drama and brinkmanship. Trump had triggered a “constitutional crisis”, claimed congressman Jerry Nadler, chair of the House of Representative’s judiciary committee, which has held attorney general William Barr in contempt and has scheduled Mueller to testify in person next week.

“As a coequal branch of government, we must have access to the materials that we need to fulfil our constitutional responsibilities in a manner consistent with past precedent,” said Nadler.

Both sides are playing to the crowds at this point. The Democratic leadership under Nancy Pelosi has already decided it does not want to uncork the Jeroboam of uncertainty and potential public backlash that impeachment proceedings would represent, and instead has chosen to focus on 2020. At the same time, Pelosi must be seen to be sympathetic to progressives in her party who would like nothing better than to begin impeachment hearings this evening.

It suits her, therefore, to have the likes of Nadler continue his investigation and make a lot of noise, even if – or especially if – it goes nowhere. Democrats can then say they upheld their duty.

The president and the White House are also playing a game.

Trump has claimed the Mueller report was both a witch hunt and a document that totally exonerated him. It was neither of those things, and it detailed numerous instances in which Trump sought to interfere with or derail the special counsel’s probe.

Yet at this point, it’s hard to see how releasing a full copy of the report would hurt him, or indeed change anyone’s overall opinion of the matter. CNN reported that just 3 per cent of Americans said they had read the entire 448-page report, and even that figure is probably considerably higher than those who actually did bother to read it to the very end.

Trump’s behaviour in relation to the Mueller report echoes the other instances of him sulking, complaining and bullying until he gets his own way.

He does not want people to see his tax returns, so he refuses to release them. He does not want to acknowledge Russia sought to help elect him, so he ignores his intelligence officials and their reports on Moscow’s influence.

He doesn’t want two women to tell stories about having affairs with him when he was married to his third wife, Melania, so he ensures they are paid off, even if it means the man who made the payments for him gets sent to jail.

This 72-year-old, born into privilege and wealth, has been getting his way all his life. Why do we keep expecting he’s going to change?