Flynn’s firing raises questions that won’t go away

LESS than a month into Donald Trump’s presidency, it is clear this is a Wild West Wing. Mr Trump is engulfed by a scandal that this week led to the firing of his national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Dismissal will not be the end of the Flynn affair. It invites bigger questions, about both the nature of the Trump administration’s ties with Russia and the way the new president runs his administration.First, Russia. At the end of December the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia after the Kremlin interfered with the presidential election—an attack on American democracy (see ). That same day Mr Flynn spoke on the phone to the Russian ambassador to Washington. After this came to light, Mr Flynn denied, both in public and in private, having discussed the sanctions with the ambassador. It turns out he did, a disclosure that the administration says cost Mr Flynn the president’s trust.