EVERYBODY HAS A LAUGHIN' PLACE
Last weekend, I wrote a long post comparing Donald Trump to the French anti-popes of the 14th century. I speculated that Trump would refuse to concede and set up an anti-presidency in Mar A Lago, where he’d plot his comeback in 2024. Sadly for my deathless prose, cooler heads in the White House finally prevailed.
Someone on Trump’s staff tweeted the closest thing to a concession that we’re likely to get. Trump pretty obviously didn’t write it – the language wasn’t his, and the nursing of grievances was minimal. But he must have signed off on it, and that, I assume, signals a transition to a new stage of Trumpian Grief. The next phases are pardons, followed by revenge.
Remarkably, there are low information voters who watch Rudy Giuliani’s traveling circus and believe that Trump is on the verge of magically overturning the election results. But Rudy’s “elite strike force” is just comic relief. When Trump’s actual attorneys are in actual courtrooms in front of actual judges, they sing a different tune. As of this writing, Trump’s legal eagles have won two minor cases and had 34 cases laughed out of court. His last gambit is to try to persuade Republican legislatures in a few states to go rogue. I doubt if he can manage it.
And he’s kidding himself if he thinks he can mount a comeback in 2024. His physical and mental health are in steep decline. Even assuming he negotiates a pardon from Mike Pence for his crimes as president, after January 20, he and his family will spend a lot of time chatting with New York’s attorney general about money laundering, income tax evasion, and other financial crimes perpetrated by the Trump Organization. Trump, at least, could plausibly plead diminished capacity. Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., and Eric don’t have that excuse, although they could try to plead stupidity. My prediction is that if Trump is still alive in 2024, he’ll be in some sort of assisted living facility.
But revenge? He can certainly exact a measure of revenge between now and 2024. The question is, who is he mad at most. Right now, his anti-Democrat rants seem rather pro forma. His most passionate grudges at the moment seem to be against his former allies in the GOP and Fox News who betrayed him in his hour of need. Dolchtoss here we come.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out what he’s planning for the two months he has left in office. Apart from golfing a lot, and continuing to spew nonsense about election fraud – partly because spewing nonsense is what he does, and partly because he needs an angle to continue bilking his fans. All this is reprehensible, but not surprising.
What puzzles me is the purge of the leadership our defense and security agencies. Why might a lame duck president with only two months left in office suddenly fire top officials in the agencies that collect sensitive information about national security? Of course, he wants people in those positions who’ll do his bidding without asking questions. But what is he asking them to do?
The question is complicated by the fact that Donald Trump isn’t a strategist, a tactician, or any kind of planner at all. He acts on impulse, and he’ll opt for short term gratification every time. And there are other actors in his orbit – Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence among others – who are pursuing their own personal agendas.
(My favorite loose cannon so far is the inimitable Roger Stone, who began a social media campaign urging voters in Georgia to write in Donald Trump – for both empty seats – in January’s senate runoffs. That same thought occurred to me. Feral Trumpers are already furious at Georgia’s Republican governor and secretary of state for refusing to cheat on Trump’s behalf. Some of them even say they’re going to boycott the runoff, or write in Donald Trump. As Brer Rabbit would say, please don’t throw me into that briar patch! Helping elect two more Democrats to the Senate is the perfect way to own the libs. But I digress.)
So. Maybe Trump is just thrashing around in pain, and firing people helps him blow off steam. We know he likes to fire people. But why hasn’t he fired a few folks in Agriculture, Interior, and HUD as well? The blowing off steam theory fails to account for his apparent targeting of the defense and intelligence leadership.
Maybe it’s something relatively mundane, like removing barriers to sketchy arms deals with countries that might be in a position to do him favors once he returns to civilian life. What kind of favors? Helping him pay off his family’s massive debts, for one. Making sure he and his family have a safe landing spot if prison seems like a realistic possibility, for another.
Maybe he wants to go out with a bang and intends to start a war he thinks he can win by January 20. And if things go wrong, it’ll be Joe Biden’s problem soon enough. Maybe he’s planning a hasty withdrawal of American troops from the Middle East, or from Europe – one last favor for his pal Vlad.
More likely, in my view, is that Team Trump wants to be able to rummage around in classified files without interference from any Goody Two Shoes who might have a few scruples left. None of the newly appointed acting administrators are remotely qualified for the jobs they hold. Their chief skills are a willingness to lie for Trump, and to look the other way (or actively abet) whatever cover-ups might be necessary.
I’m sure that if they see a chance to make some easy money, or if they find embarrassing information about members of the Democratic Party, they’ll jump on it. But I think their top priority is to sanitize the files and destroy any evidence they might find of high crimes and misdemeanors (e.g., the truth about the bone saw murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the parts withheld from the Mueller investigation, and anything that might compromise Don Jr., Ivanka, or other members of the inner circle). I expect that the grand finale will be a wave of pardons, perhaps ending with Trump’s own pardon, if he can cut a deal with Mike Pence.
The good news is, Joe Biden will be our next president. Unless Trump resigns and Mike Pence gets there first.