Few readers this week will have missed the story that a newly discovered amphibious creature has been named after US President Donald Trump.

Belonging to a wormlike group of animals known as caecilians the creature now called Dermophis Donald Trump is said to have a propensity for burying its head in the sand. 

It’s a characteristic that Mr Trump has consistently shown towards climate change, insists the head of a company who won the bid at an auction for the privilege of naming the creature after its discovery in Panama by scientists.

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Climate change, of course, is not the only issue that Mr Trump has shown a ready willingness to shy away from. Indeed one of the president’s gut instincts, whenever things don’t go his way, is either to lash out or retreat to familiar terrain.

This Christmas as a number of legal and investigative nets close in around him, Mr Trump, according to the Palm Beach Post, is expected to spend as many as 16 days over the festive period at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.

West Wing officials, remembering previous sojourns, are reported by Vanity Fair magazine to be rather on edge at the prospect of the president spending a full two weeks unsupervised and with a near compulsive tendency for reacting on Twitter. 

Indeed such is the level of discontent in the West Wing, that Bill Shine, deputy chief of staff for communications, is said to be “very frustrated” and told friends that he’s now thinking about signing a month-to-month lease for his Washington apartment. 

Inevitably the prevailing speculation is that this is another ominous portent of yet more departures to come within the administration as trouble looms on all fronts for Mr Trump. 

While as both businessman and president Mr Trump has faced crises before, the growing consensus is that his defences against accountability really are now beginning to crumble. 

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As the Washington Post summed it up a few days ago, two years after entering the White House nearly every organisation Mr Trump has led in the past decade is now under investigation.

To begin with his inaugural committee has come under federal criminal investigation. Having raised a record $107 million (£84.4m) in donations, including $14m from donors who worked for securities and investment companies and nearly $10m from those with real-estate industry ties, the question for the authorities now is just how many contributors sought to gain access to the new administration? 

Then there is the question of foreign influence with the central focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe to uncover any ties between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.  Phase two of this investigation will begin early in the new year and will also include court filings – and possible indictments – outlining connections between the Trump campaign and Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. 

Mr Trump’s private company to is contending with civil lawsuits digging into its business with foreign governments and with looming state inquiries into its tax practices. 

Then there are hush money payment investigations examining cash given to two women who were poised to talk about their sexual relationships with Mr Trump during the election campaign.

Topping it all off, earlier this week Mr Trump’s charitable foundation announced it was to close after being locked in an ongoing suit with New York state, which has accused the foundation of “persistently illegal conduct”.

Weighing all this up, its hard to see how 2019 can be anything other than the year when Donald Trump is once and for all exposed for playing fast and loose with the law over decades. 
“He’s just never been targeted by an investigation like this,” Timothy L O’Brien executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion and a biographer of Mr Trump, was quoted last week as saying. 

“The kind of legal scrutiny they’re getting right now and the potential consequences of that scrutiny are unlike anything Donald Trump or his children have ever faced,” Mr O’Brien added.

But even if the evidence does stack up, as it appears to be, what will the ultimate consequences for Mr Trump be?

Past US Justice Department opinions have held that a sitting president may not be charged with a federal crime. Even the impeachment route on behalf of House Democrats seems unlikely for now. 

Much more likely perhaps is that Mr Trump’s political fortunes pan out in much the same way as his infamous predecessor of the 1970’s Richard Nixon, who resigned while in office and was later pardoned albeit to some outcry. 

Mr Trump’s demise and departure from the White House might well take a similar trajectory with the inevitable few deals being cut along the way. 

Whatever the course of events over the next few months, it’s near impossible that the US will not suffer from the political fallout and further revelations even if  Mr Trump’s departure proves for the long-term good. 

Certainly increasing numbers of ordinary Americans appear to be seeing the writing on the wall for the president. According to a new national NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll a majority of citizens (62 per cent) say Mr Trump has not been honest and trustworthy regarding the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.  

Such findings are sure to focus the minds of many more as the cascade of investigations into Mr Trump’s alleged wrongdoings escalate.

For the moment though Mr Trump continues to writhe in a world of political and legal pain. 

For years this has been a man who had all the reasons in the world to blithely believe that the rules didn’t apply to him and he could get away with pretty much whatever he wanted. All that though is already beginning to change.

“He is about to fail at a level only a few have ever reached. His own name, his family’s name, his company’s name are being raised up to a Rushmore of shame,” warned Washington Post political columnist Richard Cohen a few days ago.