One Man, Two Very Different Appointments
Trump 2.0
The Rigged Election
Take a step back to last autumn and the fetid, vicious election campaign that will in a few days give the White House back to Donald Trump – and Trump to the rest of the world.
In among the unspoken threats from the man himself was his refusal to say he’d even accept the result if he lost – and clearly he thought he might.
As always, though, Trump played it both ways. When the polls narrowed, it was clear to him that they were being rigged. The Democrats were at it again, and on election day, Team Trump would flood the voting stations and catch them at it.
When his mood improved, so did his desire for retribution against his opponents, both real and imagined.
“When I win,” he told Americans, “those people that cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, which will include long prison sentences so that this depravity of justice does not happen again.”
The Politics of Fear and Falsehoods
Darkest of his many lurid invocations in this campaign were the false images of migrants illegally transiting the border with Mexico and slaughtering people across the country.
“These are people at the highest level of killing that cut your throat and won’t even think about it the next morning,” he said. “They grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents.”
No single piece of evidence to support such claims was ever offered. Worse, perhaps, Trump’s supporters never even asked for one.
The reason? US politics are increasingly conducted along religious lines, founded on rock-solid doctrinal beliefs that are immune to facts. As a result, political exchanges have become increasingly harsh and accusatory.
The Rise of Intimidation and Coercion
Ever since the 2020 contest, which Trump claims Joe Biden stole, the US political landscape has been littered with threats, coercion, and intimidation, more reminiscent of crusades than the processes of liberal democracy.
Election officials say that in the last four years, they have received countless death threats, targeting their families; armed militias have camped outside their properties; pets have been poisoned.
Al Schmidt, the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was also a victim that year. He told a reporter: “The point is coercion… it’s to get you to do or not do something.” The threat he received was clear and incisive: “Stop counting votes or we’re going to murder your children. And then they named them one by one.”
A year ago, the Brennan Center for Justice reported that almost 40% of America’s election officials had been abused, threatened, or harassed – this in the land that so proudly trumpets its freedoms and individual protections.
The Dual Realities of Trump’s Presidency
There are just days to go before Trump stands on Capitol Hill, hand on Bible, and swears – once again – to protect the US Constitution.
Ten days before that, a New York judge will sentence him for his conviction on 34 charges of false accounting.
The contrast between these two diary appointments is merely evidence of the extremes that Trump embodies: a basket of felony convictions unmatched by any of America’s previous presidents and, alongside them, possession of the world’s most powerful office.
Twice.
The Fragility of Democratic Institutions
As the new president swears the oath of office, a military aide, carrying a small case known as the “football,” will move from Joe Biden’s side to Trump’s in a quiet, almost unobtrusive transfer of the most consequential keys of office.
From that moment until Trump’s successor takes office, the “football,” containing the launch codes and authorizations for America’s nuclear arsenal, will remain closer to him than any other object or person. Twenty-four hours a day. Every day. Wherever he is in the world.
We don’t know how seriously Trump takes the cataclysmic power he will (once again) possess over this planet. But he isn’t averse to waving it at countries that have displeased him. In 2017, he warned North Korea that it might one day be met “with fire and fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
More disturbingly, his former chief of staff John Kelly said Trump had actually discussed the possibility of using a nuclear weapon against Pyongyang and then blaming the attack on another country.
In the days leading up to Trump’s last tenure in the White House, many politicians and commentators comforted themselves with the notion that America’s institutions were strong – stronger, in fact, than one man – even the president – and they would ensure that no harm came to the state.
They’re not saying that this time around. Since the election, it’s become clear that Trump is seeking to maximize his personal power way beyond the scope he enjoyed in his first term of office.
A Bigger Bazooka: State Capture in Action
Last year, it fell to the former and short-lived British Prime Minister Liz Truss to lay out the strategy.
She told delegates to an American political conference that gaining power through the ballot box was not enough for Conservatives because they operated in a hostile environment. In effect, they needed a “bigger bazooka” in order to deliver.
That bazooka is nothing less than the state capture now being planned by the Trump team – the filling of key, sensitive positions throughout government, the security services, and the armed forces by teams loyal only to this one man.
If it works, Trump, who has already secured Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and a conservative majority among US Supreme Court judges, will wield more direct power and influence at home than any other president in living memory.
Abroad too, he will bully and cajole and threaten to take what he wants when he wants it.
Global Ambitions and Greenland’s Defiance
In recent days, Trump has let it be known that he wishes to “acquire” Greenland, an autonomous territory between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and wouldn’t rule out taking it by force for security reasons.
Denmark, which controls the island’s foreign and defense policy, has made it clear that Greenland is not for sale.
Perhaps the inhabitants, forged by a climate infinitely more hostile than Mar-a-Lago, will yet show the billionaire what it’s like to say no – and mean it!