And I wonder if perhaps he's actually risking a repeat of the Gorbachev administration...

That depends.

The way the USSR fell apart can be read in several ways. In one reading, it was a disintegration of a coherent political entity, similar to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Austro-Hungarian empire or a hypothetical disintegration of the United Kingdoms into Scotland, Wales and England. In another reading, it was the disintegration of an empire, similar to the de-colonisation of the British and French overseas territories in the postwar period - a reality that was obscured by the fact that the Russian colonies were directly bordering the heartland or other colonies, rather than being visually separated by the sea.

I very much doubt that the US will fall apart in the former sense. On the other hand, we are witnessing a disintegration of the American colonial empire, partly by seeing it co-opted by other powers and partly by the collapse of the post-Bretton Woods economic system on which it depends.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.