Wealthy donors cheer Trump presidency 'for life' at Mar-a-Lago

Trump told a roomful of wealthy donors that he’d like to be “president for life,” and they ate it up.

On Saturday, Trump spent his morning enjoying the 100th day of his presidency that he spent at one of his golf courses, then spent his afternoon entertaining wealthy donors at a Trump Victory fundraiser on his Mar-a-Lago resort.

At one point, Trump cracked wise about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent abolition of term limits.

“Don’t forget China’s great, and Xi is a great gentleman — he’s now president for life,” Trump said, to raucous applause from the crowd.

“President for life,” Trump said. “No, he’s great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot some day.”

“He’s the most powerful president in 100 years, you know, person, in 100 years, in China,” Trump added.

Trump may have been joking (for now) about being made president for life, but his admiration for authoritarianism is authentic and well-documented. And Trump’s wealthy donors, as well as most elected Republicans, have made it clear that they will sacrifice almost any principle in order to retain power.

Of course, if the Russia investigation continues the way it has been going, Trump’s presidency may well come up significantly short of the lifetime tenure his well-heeled fans envision.