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As the Trump show nears its final episode, America prepares for the most potentially dramatic, disturbing and outlandish twists yet.
Donald Trump’s recent conduct has led critics to suggest that he has lost touch with reality and has raised alarms for an increasingly desperate and deranged takeover in the culminating month of his presidency.
Trump has considered extreme ideas such as military intervention and the appointment of a conspiracy theorist as special counsel to investigate voter fraud. He has turned against allies and has retweeted threats to jail Republicans who did not support him. He has also undermined his own secretary of state’s assessment that Russia launched a massive cyberattack against the US government.
And that was just last week. “I guess we can’t quantify the level of insanity that could come out of the Trump White House in his final days here,” said Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill. “This behavior is 100% a by-product of Donald Trump’s psychosis.”
Trump appears to have adopted a bunker mentality since the Nov.3 election, making few public appearances but continuing to voice his grievances on his increasingly frantic Twitter channel. Even when an American dies from the coronavirus every 33 seconds and hospitals struggle, the pandemic is said to have almost been mentally revised.
Instead, late-stage Trumpism is consumed by overturning Joe Biden’s electoral victory, which he still refuses to concede. His campaign and his allies have filed approximately 50 lawsuits and nearly all of them have been dismissed or withdrawn; they have lost twice in the supreme court, but they are preparing a new effort.
The electoral college has spoken, confirming Biden’s victory by 306 electoral votes to 232, prompting Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, to recognize him as president-elect. Even William Barr, the outgoing and Trump loyal attorney general, has found no pertinent wrongdoing.
Yet Trump has continued a downward spiral toward ridiculously false claims and reliance on a shrinking band of fanatics whose tactics are increasingly reckless and extreme.
Last week he considered appointing attorney Sidney Powell, who was fired from his campaign legal team after pushing conspiracy theories too extreme even for Rudy Giuliani, as a special counsel investigating allegations of voter fraud. During a bitter meeting Friday at the White House, the president even discussed obtaining Powell’s security clearance, according to multiple media reports.
At the same meeting, Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, urged him to seize the voting machines in his search for evidence of fraud. And Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser recently pardoned by Trump for lying to the FBI, suggested the president could impose martial law and use the military to rerun the election. Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House attorney Pat Cipollone raised their objections, the New York Times and other outlets said.
Meanwhile, the president prepares one last futile stance against the electoral vote recount when Congress meets on January 6 to formally ratify Biden’s victory. Trump spoke to House Republicans about questioning the outcome during a meeting at the White House on Monday, the Axios website reported, and even sent them a PowerPoint slide attacking McConnell for being “the first off the board. ship”.
The president voiced further concern over the weekend when, hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a radio interview that Russia was “quite clearly” behind the hacking of US government agencies and companies, Trump tried to undermine that message and downplay it. severity of the attack.
He tweeted that the “Cyber Hack is much higher in fake news media than it is today.” He also claimed, without proof, that China could be responsible, even though Barr has joined Pompeo in blaming Russia, renewing questions about why Trump is consistently reluctant to criticize President Vladimir Putin.
It signifies a cloud of uncertainty about what Trump is still capable of doing and how to assess the level of threat.
Setmayer, an adviser to Project Lincoln, an anti-Trump group, pointed to an incident earlier this year in which state security forces fired tear gas at peaceful protesters outside the White House as a warning sign.
“I think many people would not have imagined that what happened in Lafayette Square on June 1 would have happened in the United States, but it did, which I think is what raises the alarm for many of us who are watching what happens,” she said. “The fact that the idea of martial law or taking over the voting machines of the electoral machines is leaving the White House in any capacity is alarming.
“Now, the changes that have been made in the staff and people that Donald Trump has put in place at the Pentagon in recent weeks is concerning. Ultimately, I believe that our institutions will hold. We are a long way from seeing troops on the street or declaring any kind of martial law. That is beyond paleness. “
Indeed, even as the president escalates what is really an internal coup, he is running out of a path as the transition progresses, the country moves forward, and more allies turn their backs on him. Barr said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel, while Vice President Mike Pence has kept a low profile, reportedly to Trump’s dismay.
The military also felt compelled to draw an extraordinary line in the sand. Ryan McCarthy, the Secretary of the Army, and Gen. James McConville, the Army’s top officer, issued a joint statement that said: “The US military has no role in determining the outcome of an American election.”
Some observers have raised concerns about Trump’s psychological state as the walls close in and he looks into the abyss of the one thing he could never contemplate: becoming a loser. His niece Mary Trump told the Politico website: “He’s never been in a situation where he’s lost in a way that he can’t escape.”
Others believe that there is method in the madness and that he is preparing for his next career, in business, media or politics, after he leaves the White House on January 20.
Michael D’Antonio, author of The Truth About Trump, said: “I think he’s trying to generate enough energy and anger at his base to see him in his position as president. It’s almost like an effort to gain momentum while preserving the Oval Office, understanding that a lot of the attention will fade away pretty quickly.
“So I don’t think this is necessarily intended to produce any real results other than making people who hate him feel upset and people who are part of the cult bond more firmly.”
Trump has raised at least $ 200 million thanks to his false claims that the election was rigged. “It’s all in one piece,” added D’Antonio. “The campaign to raise money that began as soon as the result was known through a mechanism that allows you to spend it almost the way you want is part of the collection. He wants to energize that and make it as fruitful as possible in the waning weeks. “
