Donald Trump currently faces four criminal trials, as well as multiple civil ones, including the fraud case where he and his family were recently found liable. The only questions in that case are “will more charges be added and how much will he have to pay?” There will also be the matter of his New York properties, which we all know stings him like hell. Perhaps more than any other case right now.
The other trials … Trump actually enjoys them. They are good for business — maybe not literally at this point, but the for the business of power. Trump has built his entire brand on writing himself into the narrative of the victim. Everything is always rigged all the time. It’s nothing but a Witch Trial (capitalized as such because Trump doesn’t know how to Properly Capitalize). Trump is the sports equivalent of “blame the refs.”
That’s why the current political climate is so terrifying. Trump could actually win in 2024 and, if the system truly is as shaky as we believe it to be, be sworn in a few months later in 2025. He’s built this victim narrative before, and it worked. When he was impeached, his favor among Republicans went up into the 90s, whereas before it had been in the mid-80s. Even among independents, Trump’s favorability went from 47% to 51% after being impeached. Trump is doing the same thing now, and again it’s working. We’re falling for the same damn thing eight years later.
Case in point: earlier today, Trump, with polls surging, showed up to his fraud hearing and entered the courtroom, but only after making an appearance for the cameras. Just like in 2016, he’s got all our attention, and he knows it. Trump loves this shit. It’s his entire persona, and just like a WWE star, he’s taken on the role of villain quite happily. So long as he can grift from predominantly poor, predominantly uneducated, predominantly white, predominantly conservative, predominantly evangelical voters, then he’s in his element. Because to them, he’s Robin Hood.
In reality, Trump is only like Robin Hood if Robin Hood was about the Sheriff of Nottingham stealing from the poor and giving it to himself. Most of us reading this piece can see that. Some of us don’t, and unnervingly, it’s a growing number. Like I said just a moment ago, Trump’s polls are going up (while Biden’s are going down). Perhaps that is why Trump doesn’t care about these trials. If he can delay (which he can and will do), maybe he’ll delay long enough to make it to election night. And if he doesn’t, then he can pardon himself, or maybe even have the vice president do it. Another option is to surround himself with a DOJ full of sycophants who will drop the charges. Maybe he’ll even wait out his Georgia RICO case — the one litigation out of his hands should he become Supreme Leader — and somehow dodge a conviction there. Who knows? The point being is that even if Trump is in jail, that may only benefit him among the populace. Stranger things have happened in history, and we are certainly living in historic times.
That’s why America itself is on trial here. Will “justice for all” really mean all? Or will another lifetime criminal skate by on a technicality and gain even more power than before? As of writing this, it’s looking like the latter, though I’d love to be proven wrong.
And look, I know most politicians are corrupt. I know most serve themselves (in all reality, it’s their Corporate Masters … to again borrow a Trumpian-style capitalization method). But support for Donald Trump goes well beyond the known fact that politicians are corrupt. What’s at stake here is democracy itself. Because if the justice system doesn’t do its job in an expedient manner, then we may very well duly elect someone who openly, on live TV, tried to steal the government itself.
If that isn’t history repeating itself, I don’t know what is.
Because here’s the awkward thing about all of this: Something similar happened prior to Nazi Germany. And while I’m not saying Trump is Hitler, he certainly is a wanna-be fascist dictator, whereas Hitler became a real one — first by leading a failed coup attempt, which led to him being imprisoned and subsequently released a couple years later, then by propagandizing the shit out of the people (including writing Mein Kampf) and was legally installed as chancellor after gaining popularity among a growing disenfranchised electorate.
Doesn’t this sound all too eerily familiar?
Again, before any conservative reading this pops that blood vessel that bulges from their forehead whenever their egoic orange man-child accurately gets called fascistic (or fascist-adjacent), let me be clear: I’m not saying Trump is Hitler. I’m simply saying that the power vacuum that arises in countries that grow angrier and angrier has a pattern. That pattern repeats throughout history, and we are transitioning into the “find out” phase of f*ck around. If we duly elect Trump again, what will his fascistic wet dream consist of? Hitler’s was the elimination of the Jewish race, and all other “undesirables,” as he might put it. Trump’s, on paper at least, may not be quite as despicable, but that isn’t saying much. In fact, he has floated the idea of executing our own military leaders, going after anyone who has “wronged” him in the past, has been in favor of a complete Muslim ban, has talked about introducing bills that say it’s okay to kill convicted drug dealers, and seems to enjoy the idea of criminalizing a necessary portion of women’s healthcare, namely the right to an abortion. Oh, and he incited a mob that, if they had their druthers, would have murdered vice president Mike Pence, speaker Nancy Pelosi, and anyone else they could have gotten their hands on. And let’s not fail to again mention the sexual assault and business model entirely built on fraud.
If we elect that man, and if he is allowed to take power again, then I’m afraid America is doomed. I tend to think Trump is the John the Baptist of antichrist figures, as it will be his successor who really kicks things into hyperdrive. Trump is old, and even living on overcooked hamberders smothered in ketchup can’t help you live forever. Nevertheless, if there ends up being no justice for a civilly liable sexual assaulter and fraudster, who in front of all our faces attempted to steal our democracy, then America has failed. I don’t mean to sound alarmist, but that’s just how I see it.
Believe I’m wrong? Let me know in the comments.
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