Update: Thank you Driftglass for adding this article to Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up! Hope everyone peruses the blog for all the other insanity I write about!
Earlier today as he faced the growing likelihood of criminal indictments across the legal spectrum, donald trump decided to break out his old battlecry of "STOLEN ELECTION" and "MAKE ME PRESIDENT NOW" by diving further into his own madness. Via the Twittersphere with Spiro Agnew's Ghost:
My god. The absolutely deranged, utterly delusional, mentally defective unhinged former POTUS just spewed out this complete lunacy, suggesting he should be DECLARED PRESIDENT/REINSTATED/have a new election based on the title of some random story written by a right wing website. pic.twitter.com/JaTJfMlXvs
— Spiro Agnew’s Ghost (@SpiroAgnewGhost) August 29, 2022
/Headdesk
Part of trump's delusional social media ranting comes from trump's greatest personal flaw: That he can NEVER ADMIT he lost, that he can NEVER be seen as a LOSER, and as such he must always accuse everyone else of cheating him of his "success." Accusing his enemies of committing "a massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE" is mostly deflection/projection of the reality that it was trump and his Republican buddies who attempted the fraud and interference in both 2016 and then 2020.
His throwing out there the wingnut meat of "Hunter Biden's laptop" - a faux scandal pushed by the Far Right to make the Biden family look more corrupt and broken than trump's own - is part of the deflection as well.
It doesn't help trump any that his demands are impossible anyway: There ARE NO Do-Overs in Presidential elections. There are special elections to fill Congressional vacancies, but the Presidency is voted on every four years no matter what (Article II Section 1), and any vacancy gets filled by the 25th Amendment process. This is trump whining like a 5-year-old that he's not being "treated fairly" as though he's not getting his second scoop of ice cream anymore.
But this latest assault of ignorance from trump is setting up another matter: Inciting his fanbase.
By screaming this message, trump is trying to stir up the GOP faithful to believe his lie that he's both the victim and the hero here. trump is trying to get his followers to accept the lie that Biden is illegitimate, that the Democrats stole the Presidency from him. trump is spreading misinformation that restoring him to power by hook or by crook justified and doable.
trump is trying to set the foundation of another insurrection riot, with his political allies like Lindsey Graham bringing up the threat of rioting to rattle the Justice Department from pursuing any legal case against trump.
the desperation is telling. As Heather Digby Parton notes at Salon:
Trump, meanwhile, has been throwing everything at the wall on this one and none of it seems to be sticking. The political benefits aren't materializing while the legal threat he faces is so very real. So he's now deploying his most dangerous strategy, one he hinted at right after the search when he sent a cryptic message to Attorney General Merrick Garland:
President Trump wants the attorney general to know that he has been hearing from people all over the country about the raid. If there was one word to describe their mood, it is 'angry,' The heat is building up. The pressure is building up. Whatever I can do to take the heat down, to bring the pressure down, just let us know."
According to the New York Times, this strange message had the senior leadership at the FBI "befuddled." I actually doubt that. These are people who prosecute mobsters all the time and they know a veiled threat when they see it. And it's certainly not the first time they've encountered it with Trump. They are in the midst of the largest investigation in history with the January 6 insurrection cases which are a direct result of his incitement. He was letting the Attorney General know that he might have to unleash his mob again if they pursue this case and they know it...
The fact that Trump is leveraging this particular power to incite violence around these legal cases is a sign of weakness. He cannot persuade anyone who isn't already persuaded and party officials are with him only out of fear or as long as he is useful to them. Calling for riots in the streets is a nuclear option that may or may not detonate the way he thinks it will. But it has the potential to blow the country apart either way...
trump is facing - after years of bending and breaking laws - the real possibility he will get indicted with criminal charges he can no longer evade or settle out of court. And like a Sicilian mob boss facing the reality of serious jail time, trump wants to cut a swath of blood and destruction to do whatever it takes to avoid that fate.
If it means triggering a Second Civil War in every American street, trump will cross that line. he cannot accept any other fate that would confirm his LOSER status in the eyes of everyone around him.
In the face of imminent violence, we as a nation must still hold trump accountable to the law. Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens Fall. But it's going to be messy as hell.
Gods help us.
1 comment:
They keep on trying ton distract away from the goddamn crimes he committed. Yes, his treatment is unprecedented, because a US President committing actual, by the book felonies has never happened.
VP, yes it has, and they had to make a deal with Agnew to get him to resign before he pled out to keep him from inheriting the presidency from the imploding Nixon.
Fergus is despicable, but the actual problem is the goddamn Republican voters who think despicable is POTUS material, mostly because their propaganda has been selling them lies about nonexistent presidential criminality since the Clinton administration.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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