Further on Trump, Post-Election
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
Trump. Indeed for the 250,000 and counting, the Grim Reaper is he.
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Can one imagine a time when one writes about politics in the United States without the word "Trump" appearing even once in the column? Right now, I can't. But of course, that time will come (much to his chagrin) and let's hope that it comes sooner rather than later. But for now, one cannot do that. And so here some more comments on Trump, Trumpism and the Trumpites, in no particular order of importance.
1. Trump has absolutely no self-awareness. He cannot see himself as others see him, but only as he sees himself, which is very different than the way most anti-Trumpers us see him. As for just how the MAGA-cult sees him, that is quite different from the way we anti-Trumpers do. But neither is the way he sees himself, and that is important to understanding this unique (thank goodness) person.
2. Why are the Trumpubs. and even the Repubs. doing what they are doing in terms of supporting Trump's "I won" offensive?
a. Running for 2024.
b. Getting as close to the "Base" as possible.
c. Staying away from real policy issues, like dealing with: the Trumpidemic, the Economy, health services and the coming collapse in certain regions, unemployment, "food insecurity" (otherwise known as starvation), and etc.
d. "Humoring Trump." Ha!! That's like saying to the captain of the Titanic, "we want you to feel good, so don't worry about them icebergs."
e. Being totally wrapped up in Little Scotty Atlas Boy Public Healther's False "Herd Immunity" policy which will kill several million people even with effective vaccines seeming to come along soon. I wonder of anyone might sue Atlas for public health malpractice or send him up to his licensing board for practicing public health with qualification. As for Trump on the vaccines, he has already made it clear that he really is not concerned about them nor happy about their arrival, but rather really unhappy that they didn't come out before the election so that he could have run on them.
2. What the Trumpubs./Repubs. must take into account. (Only a few are, at least openly.)
a. It is becoming increasingly clear, Giuliani & Sidney Powell, Carlson & Hannity, to the contrary notwithstanding, Trump will not succeed. "In fact, the security group which includes the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors described the election as 'the most secure in American history.' "
b. Trump will be in huge legal difficulty after Jan. 20 and no yelling and screaming will get him out of it. This is a matter of fact that, being polite, not too many main-stream media sources mentioned for the first week or so after the election. The matter is now getting an ever-increasing amount of attention, and could be the principal reason why Trump would like to stay in office.
c. Trump's mainstream lawyers, like Jones Day, have left him or are in the process of doing so.
d. He will not have his current principal personal lawyer, Barr, there to help him out, much. Barr is barking now and then about election fraud but it is useful to note that the principal attorney in the DOJ responsible for such matters quit. (Although Barr, who may be unable to slip back into the White Shoe Washington Legal World, may immediately set up his own firm, for one client. Otherwise Trump will have Rudy, who himself is in legal difficulty.)
e. The mass pardons that Trump will likely issue at the end of his term of course cannot apply to non-Federal crimes, his own and those of others'.
3. Why has Trump been holed up in the White House (except when he is trying to find the holes on his golf course)?
a. Physically ill?
b. Mentally ill? Not just the narcissism, paranoia, and sociopathy that have characterized him since young adulthood, but actually mentally ill.
4. Trump for 2024? Much talk. Highly unlikely (if only because of the criminal charges web that will be quickly wound around him).
a. First of all, has to stay in the country.
b. Has to remain outwardly healthy. He would be 78, is obese, not an exerciser, eats a terrible (although tasty) diet.
c. He would have to have been able to beat every rap. Of course, he has spent a lifetime of doing this. There is no guarantee of convictions. Rudy is probably already working hard on how Trump could run the Statute of Limitations for the potential criminal case in New York State and City. (I wonder if they can be expended once an action is started.) Trump will of course sue, sue, sue (that's No. 3 of his Box of Magic Tricks). Deutsche Bank might give him up in a deal. There is a tremendous amount of written and electronic evidence gathered from Mike Cohen. There is his former accounting firm, Mazar's, which is cooperating with Cyrus Vance Jr,'s office,
d. The Mueller Report in full, except for Grand Jury material, will be published. IF the Democrats take the Senate all the unpublished bits of the Intelligence Committee Report will be published as well.
e. Other than The New York Times version, his tax returns will be released, one way or another.
f. Trump will likely not become politically irrelevant, but the variables are for whom and how much. These variables are related very significantly to the extent of his legal difficulties, and of course if he remains in the country (and I still think that at some point he is going to flee).
5. Beyond Trump, the Repubs. and of course the Trumpubs.(C) are desperate. Summed up as: "Demographic Changes." This is the major issue for them, and lies behind just about everything they are doing now.
a. 2024 will be critical for them. They will have done everything they can to make as much a mess of the Biden term as they possibly can. If they have the Senate, that will be easy. But even if they don't, they have larded the Courts, and "Packing" will not be on the table.
b. Biden, at 82, is unlikely to be the Democratic candidate. Harris will be the odds-on favorite, unless their Administration has been an absolute mess, aided of course by the Trumpubs.
c. There of course will be a Battle Royal for Repub. Nomination. E.g.: The Next Trump, but Smarter, Lindsey Graham; the Next True Fascist, but smarter, Ted Cruz; the Traditional Repubs. Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley; the Far-Right (but not Trump) Repub., Tom Cotton.
6. What the Repubs. will do if they have the Senate. Block nominations for the top Administration positions and of course the judges. (My proposal for the Executive Branch: nominate pairs, one to be acting for the legislative maximum (250 days, I believe, the other to be the Principal Deputy. Then at 249, have them just swap places.) They will block will any meaningful legislation. They will be blaming Biden for any and all of the national disasters from Day One. There will be multiple investigations: of Hunter, The Elections, 2016 again (for Mueller will have been released). Biden will have a tough decision to make: fight or try to negotiate with an opponent who doesn't want to. But this Presidency is survival-time for the Repub. Party.
7. Continuation of the intentional creation of chaos, which has been the Trump M.O. since the beginning the Trumpidemic2020©. Probably doesn't really think he can win, but wants to create the myth of the "stolen election" for use in: fund-raising, his legal battles, as an excuse if he leaves the country. Trump thrives on chaos. Obviously doesn't care about killing people, whether he realizes that his actions are doing so or not. Probably doesn't. (I wonder if, after he is out-of-office, one or more persons will sue him for negligent homicide or at least manslaughter).
8. On Transition, Trump didn't cooperate when he was coming in: Flynn was violating the Logan Act. (Maybe unconstitutional doesn't count until it is declared unconstitutional.) Flynn was carrying on foreign policy before Trump became President. What we don't know is what else the Trumpites were doing on their own during Transition. At any rate, Trump has spent a lifetime surrounded by enemies. If at any given time he didn't have any, or at least any active ones, he made them up. Right now, Trump Enemy No. 1 is Joe Biden. So just make it as tough for him as you possibly can (because for Trump, the people of the country, even the members of his cult who are now getting sicker by the day in the Red states, don't count. Only he counts.)
9. Why won't Trump concede, beyond a) he really thinks that he still has a chance, because of i) there really was fraud and enough of it, ii) the "State Legislatures" ploy still might work (at least according to Rudy), iii) his lawyers might be able to figure out a case that they could get to the Supreme Court, where his picks would give him pay-back. But in reality, this loss in just another loss in a life-long string of them. He is a life-long loser, who happens to have a remarkable talent for, for the public at least, converting losses into wins. Up to now, he has always been able to find another Protector (Magic Trick 1) who has been able to bail him out (e.g., see Russia --- Don Jr. telling us that in 2013; Deutsche Bank). This time his remarkable personalization skills --- it's all about himself and he is SUCH a good, expert, "Stable Genius" --- are not working, so far at least. But hey, you never know. It's what he has always done, and his Box of Magic Tricks has always worked for him in the past. The game is hardly over. While his Tricks seem not to be working anymore, as I said above, hey you never know.
10. As noted above, the top-level lawyers are leaving him, leaving him with "Rudy" and his bunch. A few Trumpubs., are reading the tea-leaves (actually much very public info,) and becoming Repubs. again, as is well-known, many more privately than publicly. However, of more immediate to himself and his family, top lenders are avoiding him: "According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump will be walking into a financial morass when he leaves office and resumes control of the Trump Organization that is deeply in debt and will likely see revenues decrease with the president no longer able to count on tax dollars flowing into his properties to pay for his entourage when he visits." The estimates of $400 million owed, personal guaranteed by Trump, are floating around. I have heard up to $1 billion mentioned.
11. The new line, which is the old line that he has been preparing since last winter: "he won, but they cheated, and stole it from me: "He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn't even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!" Click Here Just like why he lost the 2016 popular vote. Be prepared. We are going to hear it a lot, for a very long time.
Yes, this is all to try to keep his very large base, cult, intact. It is all to keep together a good chunk of them who can become paying subscribers when he sets up his streaming service (most likely from abroad --- and he will have an explanation for that one too). But it also for his ego, his self-image, that he is not a life-long loser, which he is, but really a life-long winner, which he isn't. What he is actually, is History's Greatest Con Man. That is the one game that he has played, for all of his life, which he has won. It remains to be seen if he's got one more Bigger-the-Big Con in him.
12. The firing of Christopher Krebs, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-11-17/trump-fires-agency-head-who-vouched-for-2020-vote-security) was done for just one reason. Despite warnings that outside interference was coming (indeed in a Stephanopoulos interview Trump said he would welcome it), for 2020 it was shut down. Trump lost. Cybersecurity for 2016 was way over-matched. Trump won. Indeed, Krebs did his job, and in cooperation with the other agencies that did theirs, he was effective. If they hadn't, Trump well be on his way to a second term, and he knows it. So out the door goes Krebs.