You recall how Michael Cohen said that Donald Trump would always telegraph his ideas? He didn’t need to come right out and say do this or that, but like all mob bosses he let his subordinates know the result he wanted and then they would go out and achieve that result for him? I think of that every time I hear somebody say, “Trump never told anybody at the Capitol to riot.”
Really? Well, let’s listen to a few examples of how he talks to MAGA, including his most recent edict, “You’re to go after this attorney general.” What does “go after” mean? Follow her in line at the buffet, so that she gets to eat first? How very thoughtful of MAGA and Trump, my mistake. It would not surprise me to hear somebody argue that, seriously.
We've heard this rhetoric from Trump in the past. We know where he wants it to lead. pic.twitter.com/6c9aXUWxTf
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 8, 2023
And remember this?
Presidential Immunity?
How about dereliction of duty?
He abandoned his post as our President by watching an attack on his Capitol for 187 minutes.
Trump did absolutely NOTHING but encouraged his terrorists to hang Mike Pence. pic.twitter.com/SzYYUVNlOd
— UnitedWeStand (@UnitedW22607736) October 5, 2023
Our nation was for all intents and purposes unhelmed for those three hours. The titular “president” was watching the riot on TV, engrossed in it, the vice president was attempting to perform his ceremonial duty of certifying the election, until he had to be evacuated from the Senate chamber, the Speaker of the House was hiding out with the rest of the representatives, under chairs, wherever they could go. Liz Cheney let Paul Gosar have it. If it’s slipped your mind, click this link and read how Gosar demanded that Christopher Wray provide the name of the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt as she refused to stop climbing through the broken glass. Cheney replied,
On January 6, as the violent mob advanced on the House chamber, I was standing near @RepGosar and helped him open his gas mask. The Capitol Police led us to safety. It is disgusting and despicable to see Gosar lie about that day and smear the men and women who defended us.
And do you recall Pence’s Secret Service detail calling home to say goodbye to loved ones because they feared for their lives? That was a chilling moment in our history. Mike Pence, if he had any balls, would be talking about the details of this incident and that day. Although, frankly, I don’t blame him. Trump would just sic the loonies on him and I’m fairly certain that his wife has begged him not to do anything to cause that performance to repeat and I can’t say as I blame her. In her shoes, that’s what I would do.
Although the fact remains, until somebody in the GOP stands up to Trump, he will keep them captives, just like the obnoxious brat child in the Twilight Zone episode, whom everybody appeased so that he didn’t send them to the cornfield. That’s exactly the dynamic between Trump and the GOP is what you see in that episode. Both brats are served so that they don’t throw another tantrum and destroy their enablers. Their enablers wish them in Hell but they’re too afraid to try anything.
And this episode, for me, is the most chilling. When Pence said, “I’m not getting in the car, Tim,” (Pence said, in response to Giebels’ insistence that he enter the armored vehicle.) “I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.”
And why did he feel that way? I don’t know, but I’ll tell you something: White House phone records reveal that Trump spoke to Stephen Miller on the phone more that day than to anybody else. You tell me the content of their conversations and I’ll tell you why the vice president didn’t want to get in the car. I keep hoping and praying that Jack Smith can bring those conversations to light.
Trump makes his wishes known. And his followers carry them out. Or, they did. After all the people that were incarcerated on January 6, because they believed that Trump would give them a pardon, maybe there won’t be so many irresponsible MAGAs taking up arms and going to the Capitol when Trump either loses the 2024 election or has to drop out because of a sentence being pronounced after judgment in one of his cases. Or, maybe the cult will continue to follow their Mango Monarch’s darkest impulses. Or maybe they’ll all drink kool-aide. We’re going to see in the days and months ahead.
Trump is, as it’s been said, running to run the government that he tried to overthrow when he ran it before, while running to stay out of jail. He’s desperate and cornered. And as his empire slips away from him in New York and other places, who knows what he will do?
Narcissistic collapse is imminent.
The world is going to see what narcissistic collapse looks like.
I’m not sure if he will end up in a fetal position on the courtroom floor, or order his perceived enemies to be killed or try to murder them himself but it’s going to happen.
Last week he hightailed it back to Florida when court broke for lunch because his narcissism couldn’t handle that his former book cooker admitted to everything Ms James accused him of.
He won’t be able to escape when he is on trial with Jack Smith. When he is forced to sit there through that months long trial we’re going to see trump and his narcissism come absolutely unglued.