I saw someone on Twitter pointing out that Trump's perspective has been that "the presidency" is the prize for winning "the election" and that the Republican Party has been enabling this - because he won, he gets to do whatever he wants because he's the winner. I honestly think that the career political operatives that usually surround any functional administration are crucial for maintaining a watertight legal framework for whatever skullduggery the administration uses to accomplish their political ends; Trump is hardly the first president to leverage a political relationship for personal or party gain. However, Trump has done so baldly, with massive overt involvement from cabinet-level officials, without the slightest regard for the criminal blowback he faces. There's an impression that the legality of the situation is being analyzed after the fact.