Reality encroaches upon even the most perverse and obtuse amongst us and Donald Trump is having one of those days. He can look out the third story window of the White House residence and see the blue bunting with “Biden Harris Inauguration” being hung on temporary stands. Nothing worked. Not his continuing lies about a stolen election, not the insurrection he mounted, it all has been for naught and has blown up in his face. Now he leaves office in disgrace, having made history in the last two weeks of his term as the first president to ever be impeached twice.
Trump had planned a “farewell tour” with his children, which would amount to a victory lap wherein he touted his *achievements* and presumably would set up his spawn, namely Donald Junior and Ivanka, for political careers of their own and the inception of a Trump dynasty. That plan blew up on the launch pad on January 6. Jared and Ivanka’s ears are still ringing.
But Trump being who and what he is, still needs a little fanfare before he is eclipsed and slinks out of the limelight and into a Twitter-less future of financial difficulty and the paying of long due debts, both financial and karmic. CNN:
Eager for a final taste of the pomp of being president, Trump has asked for a major send-off on Inauguration Day next week, according to people familiar with the matter, before one last presidential flight to Palm Beach. […]
Inside the building, Trump has been weathering a second impeachment and growing isolation from his onetime allies in sullen desolation. He has grown more and more worried about what legal or financial calamities may await him when he is no longer president, people who have spoken to him said, fueled by warnings from lawyers and advisers. He is weighing pardons, including for himself and his family, as he attempts to muster a legal team for another impeachment trial. And he is resentful of Republicans who he feels abandoned him in his hour of need, including the GOP leaders of the House and Senate.
Aides have pleaded with Trump to deliver some type of farewell address, either live or taped, that would tick through his accomplishments in office. But he has appeared disinterested and noncommittal. On Thursday, it was Pence carrying out tasks ordinarily left to a president, like visiting national guardsmen posted at the US Capitol or visiting White House operators to say farewell.
Pardons for himself and his family are being contemplated by Trump in these, his final days and hours. Lawyers, those who will actually work for the man, are researching whether he can issue these pardons, or whether the presence of criminal conspiracy would invalidate these pardons — and possibly those pardons already given by Trump. If he’s done one thing, it’s to scatter skeins of legal yarn that scholars and lawyers will be seeking to wrap up for years to come.
And if the self-pardon gambit doesn’t play out, what about resigning, as has been demanded by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, not to mention that bastion of conservatism, The Wall Street Journal who called upon him last week to step down and give the reins to Mike Pence?
Trump has been consumed by the unraveling of his presidency during his last days in office, according to people around him, which included a casual discussion among advisers recently about a possible resignation.
Trump shut the idea down almost immediately. And he has made clear to aides in separate conversations that mere mention of President Richard Nixon, the last president to resign, was banned.
He told one adviser during an expletive-laden conversation recently never to bring up the ex-president ever again. During the passing mention of resigning this week, Trump told people he couldn’t count on Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him like Gerald Ford did Nixon, anyway.
No, Pence is most probably not on board for any more theatrics like becoming the 46th president for a couple of days and then turning over the helm to Joe Biden. Pence had his fill of drama at the Capitol when he escaped with his life with seconds to spare. Washington Post:
Twice the vice president’s agents told Pence that they recommended he and his immediate entourage evacuate the Capitol, according to two people briefed on the episode.
Pence declined the recommendation both times, saying he did not want to be driven out of his own office and the Capitol building by an unruly mob, the people said.
The third time, Secret Service didn’t give Pence a choice, the people said. Detail agents told Pence they were all going — that instant. […]
At 1:50 p.m., the D.C. police on-scene commander declared a riot.
At 1:59 p.m., Sund said, he received the first report that rioters had reached the Capitol’s doors and windows and were attempting to break at least one window.
At about 2:11Â p.m., video footage shows that the rioters successfully broke through a window with a piece of lumber. A minute later, a member of the mob entered through the window, the footage shows.
At 2:13Â p.m., Pence suddenly left the Senate floor and was moved to the nearby office, according to C-SPAN footage and a Post reporter on the scene.
But the rioters were not far behind. They chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs, arriving on the landing at 2:14 p.m., video footage shows — seconds after the vice president had been whisked inside the office.
Mike Pence got out with his skin. And he had his wife and daughter with him. He was livid and justifiably so. Vanilla Spock is not known for his displays of emotion. But Jim Inhofe described Pence as angrier than he had ever seen him.
“I’ve known Mike Pence forever,” Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday night. “I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today.”
“He was very upset,” Inhofe said of Pence at another point, according to a pool report compiled by Congressional reporters.
“I had a long conversation with him,” Inhofe said. “He said, ‘After all the things I’ve done for [Trump].'”
Realistically speaking, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and the GOP of that era were able to cobble together a plan whereby Ford would take over and pardon Nixon and it would set the nation on the course to healing. That won’t happen here. Trump will be tried in the Senate after Joe Biden takes office and que sera sera.
The saga of Donald Trump is a morality tale. He would not stop at any reasonable time when he was ahead. He could have preserved a number of relationships which were beneficial to him, including with Twitter, the loss of which is the unkindest cut of all, but he had to keep pushing because he knows no boundaries and has no bottom.
Trump’s mantra is the polar opposite of Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high.” His MO is, “There is no low I won’t go.” And now he’s going to reap the whirlwind of what he has sown, as do we all.
Pride cometh before a fall.
Yes, and narcissism comes before total self annihilation.
It’s really tough, when you run out of people that will join you at the bottom. That’s why he feels betrayed-they actually have limits and boundaries.
He pushed Pence and McConnell to theirs and that’s some pretty low territory we’re talking about .
The only proper punishment for trump, his family, and his criminal cronies is for each one to be placed in total isolation for the rest of their lives. To not ever see or hear or read anything, and to not ever see, hear or contact anyone for the rest of their lives.Oh, and I was kinda hoping to see trump dragged kicking and screaming from the White House in a strait jacket and leg irons, but as long as he goes…
I understand the sentiment but nothing like that will happen. I think we’re going to see their assets shrink quite a bit though, and absolutely their influence is going to shrink. There are bookies taking bets as to whether Don Jr. gets banned from Twitter on January 20. Seriously. I just got an email on it.
Mary Trump pegs (pun intended) Trump perfectly in the tile of her book, which starts with “Too Much And Never Enough.” I wrote a comment elsewhere yesterday referencing trading having seen my lifelong fantasy of the Cubs in the World Series fulfilled to see Trump and his KKlan in prison. So baseball is on my my mind again and I think of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemmons in particular. Each was a true jerk all along but both would have gone into the records books and baseball lore with accomplishments exceeded by few indeed. Each would have been in the discussions of the future about the best to have played their respective positions, and despite their attitudes both on the field and off both had ENORMOUS public profiles and had accumulated great wealth. Both were sure fire first ballot Hall of Famers after they retired and were (after five years) eligible for induction. However, to quote John Belushi “But nooooooooo!” They both decided that wasn’t enough and engaged in years of costly (only financially at first) use and abuse of sophisticated designer steroids and eventually got caught. Disgraced. Big time legal problems. Loss of incalculable money from endorsements they could have milked for the rest of their lives. And forget about being in that rare club of Hall of Famers, but the even more rarified air of those elected on the first ballot in which they were eligible. All gone. All because something in them didn’t allow them to be “merely” satisfied with being one of the greatest players in the games history. NOTHING would ever be enough for them so they damaged their long-term health and ruined all the rewards that would have been theirs had they not compulsively cheated.
Trump could have probably, had he been willing to at some point decided it was best to stop trying to add balls to the ones he was already having trouble juggling gotten re-elected, or even if not perhaps managed to hold on to much of the ill-gotten gains he’d accumulated. But nothing was, or ever will be enough for him. And it’s possible nothing, except an eight by ten cell is what he may well wind up with. I sure hope so!
The psychologists warned us, the psychiatrists warned us, his former business partners warned us, everyone ever cheated by him warned us, the women he molested warned us, his own sister warned us, Tillerson warned us, Mueller warned us, dozens and dozens of leakers warned us, his own actions – emoluments, blackmailing Ukraine, trade wars, pulling out of climate and nuclear treaties, kissing up to Putin and Korea and Syria, downplaying and mishandling the pandemic, inciting violence towards the media and anyone he doesn’t like, over and over, disrespecting the judiciary and military…but Moscow Mitch and Leningrad Lindsey and Gym Jordan and Nunes and his cow and Matt Gaetz of Hell and most of the GOP did their ostrich thing and here we are. A malignantly narcissistic, pathologically lying, sociopathic, pandemically genocidal, psychopath has brought the country to the abyss and thrown us in. I do not envy Joe and Kamala and Nancy and Chuck the task of pulling us the hell up and out and back from the brink. We all have to have their backs.
We heard it, the Democrats. We saw this from the beginning. It’s the GOP who continued to pretend and continue to this minute. That is the problem.
I don’t have a lot of hope but I’ve got some because Trump himself has lost social media access. Assuming YouTube extends its one week ban (WTF? One week? Come on Google!) Trump’s media access will be limited. Rupert Murdoch himself is coming to the U.S. to ride her on Fox. Remember that morning when Fox & Friends were distraught at the mess Trump was creating for himself (and them) in that long, long call in? I think Lawrence O’Donnell nailed it when he said that after it was apparent Trump wouldn’t take not just hints but requests from the Fox folks to end the call the order was given to literally pull the plug on Trump and THAT could only have happened one way. Rupert Murdoch himself calling in to the control room and telling them if they didn’t cut to commercial and get Trump off the air that instant they’d all be fired. So while I think the evenings will still be filled with Trump fluffing it will be toned down a bit. Lou Dobbs might find himself looking for a new gig as I expect his little corner of Fox will get a makeover that doesn’t include him. Again, I don’t expect much from Murdoch in changing Fox, but even making it less bad is better than nothing and limiting Trump himself’s ability to call in or appear live will I think be pretty strictly regulated. They need to stop the bleeding with their audience looking elsewhere but can’t afford to lose any more advertisers. The My Pillow guy isn’t rich enough to sponsor ALL their programming!
Parler, which wouldn’t have existed in the first place without Rebekah Mercer again trying to buy influence in the GOP she and her dad now have legal/prosecutorial targets on their backs. Parler is dead. Newsmax and OANN are relatively small outlets and need money to expand and Trump won’t exactly be flush with ready cash to help them. Already under scrutiny as much as she might want to provide a big infusion of money Rebekah Mercer is unlikely to help them grow and provide a bigger platform for Trump. As for others who might the best bet would have been Sheldon Addelson who just kicked the bucket. His wife is as bad as he was but their first loyalty has always been Israel and their pal Bibi is in deep you-know-what himself. If he does down hard so does the Likud Party so that’s likely to be where she will concentrate her money and efforts.
So, taking all that into consideration I have a small but not insignificant amount of hope that in the ensuing months Trump’s ability to reach the masses of MAGA land will be significantly curtailed. That in turn might ratchet down the fervor, and if by summer Biden has been able to get some tangible improvements and we are starting to see a new normal that people (even MAGAts) can feel a little optimism about AND Trump has had a muted voice his spell might finally be broken. If most of his mentions in the news are about the evidence being presented in court it will also help break his cult-leader type spell. Some will of course never, ever admit they got sucked into a cult. It’s always been that way with cults and we’ve see multiple tragedies because of that sad fact. But maybe, just maybe enough people will have their faith in the cult leader weakened that with the right circumstances they might see the world around them without the not rose but orange tinted glasses and start living in the real world again. Maybe. I actually believe it’s possible, although I’m a good ways off from believing it could become likely. Still…
That’s alot of evil in his tenure. No wonder the last four years has felt like a waterboarding experience.
Besides the loss of access to social media, I’m half expecting Deutsche Bank in the next few weeks to follow through on their dropping him as a customer to start foreclosure on his outstanding loans
[email protected]