Is Trump already a lame duck?

AFTER A LONG, ugly summer and fall, the holidays are upon us.

- ROBIN ABCARIAN

PRESIDENT TRUMP appeared to be nodding off during a White House event earlier this month.

ANDREW HARNIK Getty Images

For some, it’s turkey season.

For others, it's eggnog season.

For President Trump, it’s starting to look a lot like lame-duck season.

He's got less than a year before power in Congress is likely to change hands, putting a much-needed damper on his reign of terror against American institutions, immigrants, science and medicine, political enemies and free speech.

(Sadly, even if the House of Representatives flips, Trump’s war on good taste will continue. Am I the only one who thinks Trump, with his penchant for covering every surface with gold rococo, is a 21st century version of the Bond villain Goldfinger, who murdered victims by slathering them in gold paint?)

The signs of lame duckery grow as Trump's popularity dips. His party was trounced in the off-year elections this month. Inflation, which he promised to whip, has not abated. Prices remain high. Consumer confidence has plummeted. Health insurance premiums are about to skyrocket. The Supreme Court does not appear to be looking kindly on his tariff schemes, nor on his plan to end birthright citizenship. Lower courts have defied him at almost every turn, most recently tossing out the absurd criminal indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James.