Publications as diverse as GQ and The Guardian are all coming to the same scary conclusion: you might be living through the most significant constitutional crisis since Watergate. The most recent supporting evidence is President Donald Trump's move to fire the acting attorney general, Sally Yates. She was an Obama appointee, sure, but she was working for Trump and interpreting laws when she decided that the travel ban executive order wasn't something she could support. Trump fired her for that. But that's just one problem; there are seven other signs we're heading for a constitutional crisis.
In case you're not sure what that means, a constitutional crisis is a situation that the legal system doesn't seem to be able to resolve. It threatens to break down the functioning of government because different branches have different stakes — and perhaps ignore those who are supposed to provide their checks and balances. This wouldn't be the first time the country has faced one.
Many pundits have made comparisons between Trump's moves and the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. That's because of the Saturday Night Massacre when President Nixon pushed for the firing of people in the DOJ, quite similarly to Trump. Does that mean this one move is as serious? Not necessarily. But when taken with these other seven signs, it sure doesn't look good.