The End of an Error (E-45 for those scoring at home)
He began his Presidency by promising to make America great again. He ended it by exhorting his most ardent followers to commit treason against America. Pardon his insurrection.
As we close the chapter on Donald J. Trump (who once actually explained that the “J” stands for “Genius”) the ironies, anomalies and logical contradictions are limitless.
The man who demanded unwavering loyalty from everyone around him had ZERO loyalty towards them. In four years, he fired virtually everyone he hired to who worked for him. At the time of his own firing by the American people, he was on his 3rd Deputy White House Counsel, 4th Attorney General, 4th Press Secretary, 5th Deputy Chief of Staff and 6th National Security Advisor! The man who proclaimed that he “would hire only the best people” had a turnover rate of more than 90% among the Executive Members to the Office of the President.
It’s particularly mind-boggling that so many accomplished people fell for his shtick. Successful businessmen like former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, experienced political operatives like Reince Priebus, and four-star Generals like John Kelly and Jim Mattis all signed up for the Trump train and gave him their undivided loyalty even when they often disagreed with his antics or position. These proud men, all conservative Republicans, were rewarded for their allegiance by being removed unceremoniously and having their intelligence, competence and character lambasted on their way out the door. They left office with their reputations sullied, undoubtedly wishing that they had never crossed paths with the Trumpster.
No one has been immune. Even his most loyal henchman Mike Pence, who bit his evangelical lip every time Trump did something he knew was morally wrong if not illegal, finally realized that he was no exception. When Pence decided that he just couldn’t follow the Fuhrer’s command to unilaterally declare him President, Trump publicly blasted his human golden retriever to the point that many of his followers were actually calling for his execution! And knowing that he and family were inside the Capitol in harm’s way and that rioters were specifically looking for him, Trump failed to lift a finger to call and check on his Vice-President. Somehow – after witnessing firsthand so many other loyal subjects treated like garbage when they didn’t do exactly as told – Mike was genuinely surprised. He actually thought they were friends?!
And then there are his most fervent supporters who he won over by promising that he would always fight for them. They believed him and did anything he asked. When he urged thousands of these worshippers to descend upon DC from all across the country on the dangerously false premise that the election was “rigged” and that he won by a “landslide” they showed up in droves. And when, having run out of legal options to overturn the election, Trump implored them to do his dirty laundry and invade the United States Capitol and disrupt the electoral process, they complied, risking prosecution, loss of their job, and personal injury, even death.
But rather than join them in their march to the Capitol as he had promised, the brave leader went back to the comforts of the White House. There he watched their brazen sedition on TV with glee while loyalist congressmen literally begged him to intervene. He finally called off the dogs with a polite message to his fanatics to “go home” for now (reminiscent of “the stand down and stand by” message to The Proud Boys). Before discharging them from duty, however, he made sure to tell them how special they were and how much he much loved them.
Yet, less than 24 hours later, when the invasion stunt backfired politically and Trump was now personally at risk for removal by his own Cabinet, impeachment and possible criminal charges for inciting an insurrection, he suddenly struck a much different tune. Trump not only condemned these followers, he said they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law! And now they will be. And for all those folks who went to the Capitol and still believe Trump actually cares about you, be sure to note that unlike 143 others today, he didn’t pardon ANY of you!
Indeed, Trump was so accustomed to having everyone within his orbit follow his every command that he actually expected the three Supreme Court Justices that he appointed to completely disregard the law that they had spent their lives pledging to uphold because they “owed him.” He even had the audacity to announce that publicly, urging them to have the “courage” to overthrow the election. I’m not sure the boss of the Genovese crime family had his level of gall or ethical immorality.
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump will go down as the biggest enigma in U.S. political history. How will historians in the future try to explain his immense popularity among so many, including folks who had little or nothing in common with him?
How did a person with the lowest of morals and without a religious bone in his body become the candidate championed by evangelicals and highly religious folks? And not just when running against an abortion-supporting Democrat (since opposition to abortion trumps everything else in some minds) but even in the primaries against a large field of highly religious anti-abortion Republicans?
How did a draft-dodger who made numerous condescending, insulting and outrageous remarks about military folks (none more offensive than his comments about John McCain not being a military hero because he got captured in war) become popular among the majority of military folks? And why would those who so unselfishly sacrifice their lives for sake of country want a man directing them and their beloved country to be so self -absorbed and even mentally unbalanced, as Four-Star General John Kelly and so many others came to realize and publicly express?
How did a businessman with a long record of overzealous lending, defaults on obligations and numerous bankruptcies become the darling of fiscally-responsible Republicans looking to curb excessive government spending and reduce our massive budget deficit? Are these folks genuinely surprised that he leaves office with the largest deficit in history – which grew from $20 trillion to nearly $30 trillion (a 50% increase!) in just four years?
And how could blue collar workers (the crux of his base) possibly believe that a billionaire country club-type who had routinely stiffed fellow blue collar workers in the past for their hard-earned wages would be devoted to making their economic lives (as opposed to the wealthy) better?
Even if these folks could be excused for jumping on the Trump bandwagon at the inception, mesmerized by his unorthodox and charismatic behavior and wowed by his assertion that he was not like other untrustworthy politicians, how could they continue to believe this charade after his obsessive lying was revealed for all to see and when he proved to be the ultimate politician?
More than any other issue, Trump secured his political ascendancy by guaranteeing that he would build a wall that covered the entire 2000 mile southern border of the U.S. with Mexico and assuring that Mexico would pay for all of it. In four years he managed to only build about 1/4 of it (450 miles) of which 90% represented merely replacing a barrier that already existed. When Mexico failed to pay a dime for the wall none of his followers cared. Nor did most of his pro-military supporters when he raided the Defense Budget to pay for most of this $15 Billion cost without Congressional approval, disingenuously claiming that this was a “national emergency.”
Trump also rallied enormous support by decrying the horrific ills of Obamacare (knowing his followers hated anything associated with the name “Obama”). At the same time he knew that most of them actually liked the signature achievement of Obamacare – requiring insurance companies to accept folks with pre-existing conditions. So Trump promised to replace this dreaded health care plan with a much better, “great” plan of his own – one that he said would allow folks to continue with the doctors of their choice and cover pre-existing conditions, all at a much lower cost. No such plan ever materialized or was even presented during his entire Presidency. But his followers remained mum and Obamacare still exists.
Trump routinely ripped President Obama on the campaign trail for playing too much golf at taxpayer expense when a true leader, he contended, should be focused on the the many crises in America. His followers roared with approval. And then HE went and played more golf than a retired geezer in Miami Beach, while hundreds of thousands of Americans were dying during the worst health crisis of the last century. Indeed, by all accounts, Mara Laga Don played over 315 rounds of golf as President at a taxpayer cost in the tens of millions. That’s the equivalent of playing golf six days every week for an entire year! Yet, once again, not a single complaint about that from his supporters to my knowledge.
And on and on it goes. Perhaps the biggest irony is that the country that he proclaimed to be (and most Americans enthusiastically believe is) the “greatest nation on earth” managed to elect a deranged unhinged human being to be its leader. Even if we could be excused as a nation for exercising poor judgment in not appreciating just how dishonest, corrupt, vindictive and incompetent he was at the time, we (our representatives) let him stay on the job and with his finger on the nuclear codes for four years! Indeed, as late as November 2020, 74 Million of my fellow citizens were willing to give him another go (although 74 Million is still less than 81 Million, at least for those folks who understand basic math).
Well, it’s been four long years – 1461 exhausting days of more than 25,000 excruciating tweets – and King Donald is finally gone. Trumpty Dumpty has had his great fall. But is this really the end of the Orange man’s political ambitions and his obnoxious and clueless clone sons?
It’s hard to say. In four years Trump will be 78 and, if there is a God, he’ll be bald and behind bars somewhere (though being a convicted felon surprisingly does not disqualify you from the Presidency). I don’t really expect him to serve a day in jail, given his pardon of many folks who have knowledge of his crimes along with a court system he has loaded with allies and folks beholden to him. But one can always hope.
If there is a positive ramification of the insurrection at the Capitol it’s that Trump may have finally alienated at least some mainstream Republicans. Perhaps more importantly, he has clearly pissed off significant business and financial interests which are ordinarily crucial for securing the massive funding needed to run a Presidential campaign.
But I would never count out a guy who has inexplicably made himself into the biggest celebrity in the world and who craves Putin-like power and will do literally anything to secure and maintain it. These are characteristics in today’s world that virtually ensure his political relevance in the future.
Even if Donald has served his last day as President, his damaging legacy rages on. He leaves behind 400,000 COVID deaths and counting, a deficit of nearly $30 Trillion and severely troubling future financial woes, 234 mostly radical right wing judicial appointments, an international community that no longer can fully trust the United States to honor its deals and treaties, and an assortment of environmental policy disasters that advance the day when our descendants will soon have to grapple with a very different world than we have been privileged to live in. If that weren’t enough, he has greatly exacerbated a culture where more people than ever genuinely hate folks “on the other side” of the political spectrum.
And perhaps most dangerously, Trump has awakened a sleeping giant in this country – a minority, but nevertheless considerable army, of folks who are mad as hell that their America is gone and isn’t coming back (you know, the one where the white man reigned supreme, the women were in the kitchen, and the blacks, Mexicans and other more recent immigrants only had jobs they didn’t want). During his reign, the leader of our country gave them permission to come out of the woodwork and express their anger alongside their radical racist and anti-Semitic views. If there’s one thing that folks like the now bankrupt NRA have demonstrated it’s that you don’t need to have the majority behind you; you just need enough folks with passionate convictions who are willing to protest, give money, travel anywhere, create havoc and literally devote their life to the cause.
It may be difficult for them to find a spokesperson for their cause as brazen, powerful and captivating as Donald Trump. But the rest of us should fully expect that despite a new administration and cries for unity there will be a Don Jr (if not the actual one) who will emerge from this pack hungry to lead this charge – be it Cruz, Hawley or some other equally opportunistic but more charismatic politician plucked from the crowd.
The rest of us need to try to better understand the reasons that are fomenting their extreme anger. We need to try to listen to them and even attempt to address their concerns, if that’s possible. However, some of their beefs are wedded in racism and we can’t waiver or compromise on that. Nor can we likely change most of their views short of a frontal lobotomy. Most importantly, the rest of us need to continue to match their passion going forward to prevent the avatar of Donald Trump from ever again reaching the highest office in the land.
But today is a day for celebration – of democracy and of decency. A day in which the rest of us can finally take a deep breath. Joe Biden is by no means perfect and he may prove to be a flawed President. But to use Trump’s own limited vocabulary, it’s a beautiful and tremendous thing to see someone representing our nation who, at the very least, is not a self-serving vindictive asshole. So sad that the sore loser wasn’t there to see and learn from it.
