At The University of Texas at Austin, I periodically teach a course on America From the Outside. The premise is that intelligent foreign observers of American politics, like Tocqueville, Sarmiento, Umberto Ecco, Sergio Leoni, Bryce, Dickens, Adorno, Baudrillard, and others see and understand aspects of America that go unnoticed by those of us who live within it. Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times has written a terrific piece that reflects back on the prognostic significance of Trump’s behavior during the 2016 transition, when he fired his transition director, Chris Christie.