This assumes that Trump is actually able to make decisions. He's clearly showing signs of dementia, and so he's easily controllable. His handlers just make sure he forgets anything they don't want him to remember.

Do you think Trump of 8 years ago would have allowed Musk to usurp the news cycle? Or even allowed the merest notion that he's not controlling _everything_?

Remember, Trump actually underwent a colonoscopy without sedation to avoid relinquishing the control of the nuclear weapons to Pence. This dude is a control freak.

Colonoscopies are not that bad; many countries do it without sedation. The sedation part is annoying in multiple ways; it prevents you from doing a bunch of stuff the rest of the day, while without sedation, you can continue as if not much has happened afterward.

Even endoscopies are possible without sedation, but most people don't have the ability to not squirm or gag for that one. You can even see youtube videos of people doing that one without sedation.

By my measure, Cohen is the only person from Trump world who has redeemed himself. He’s still a slimey hot head, but he sees Trump for what he is, and he’s committed himself to making things right. Of course he’s trying to profit as much as possible, but he serves as an example that even the biggest sycophants can make it out of the cult.

He's probably protected in the sense that he knows stuff Trump doesn't want public.

As if anything Trump's done in secret becoming public would harm his reputation.

Trump is basically immune from scandal. The people that vote for him either don't care, are low-information voters that somehow don't even hear about it, don't believe the news reporting on the scandals, or even worse, actively support him because of the scandals.