We are learning that while Donald Trump is sitting around doing nothing much except watching television and tweeting, his familiars are still going about their business as if nothing has changed, even buoying the hurt feelings of the sore loser child by giving him a surprise “victory” party. In the meantime, Trump’s dysfunctional immediate family carries on: Don Jr. and Eric are insisting that election fraud conspiracies be pursued to the very last breath, and there are rumors suggesting that Melania has had enough with continuing her “transactional” relationship with tubby and people criticizing what she has done to the Rose Garden. Jared and Ivanka are transferring their kids from one school to another after the parents of other students complained that they were not following the school’s COVID-19 protocols--which seems to be in line with daddy’s lack of interest with the third-wave of the COVID-19, with 2,000 more deaths recorded today and 700,000 more people filing new unemployment claims.
But Trump’s feverish mind is probably mired in much more “personal” considerations, not surprising since everything he has done in the past four years has a what’s-in-it-for-me dimension. For example, Trump has to consider his next moves post-presidency; he may be able to “pardon” himself from current and future federal crimes, but not from crimes in state courts. Some have suggested that Trump might decide to move to another country to avoid jail time or paying his debts, and he does have bartering chips to offer countries like, say, Russia, where he apparently still wants to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The Washington Post suggested that Trump might trade secrets to foreign actors “in exchange for favors or to ingratiate himself with prospective clients in foreign countries or to get back at his perceived enemies. When he leaves office, Trump will be facing a crushing amount of debt, including hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that he has personally guaranteed.”
Some may scoff at this, but Trump is already on record passing classified information to Russian diplomats, and who knows what he has told Vladimir Putin in their private meetings early in his presidency. Trump has the authority to declassify state secrets, and although he cannot arbitrarily declassify information after he leaves office, whatever information he manages to store in his head is probably fair game in his mind. It isn’t hard to imagine that Trump will claim that he has a “right” to declassify anything he is accused of doing after he leaves office, or that he had done so beforehand but felt he didn’t have to tell anyone about it. Let’s also not forget that some suspicious characters in the administration also have top secret security clearances, like Jared and Ivanka; Jared especially seems like a prime candidate to “trade” secrets.
Still, it may be “better” for the country if Trump spends more time thinking of his “future” than of the present. We know what being “proactive” in the Trump administration can mean, if we look at what Trump disciples like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have up their sleeves. The Miami Herald reported that DeSantis is proposing to expand the state’s already infamous “stand your ground” law to include anyone whose business is “interrupted” or “impaired” by a rioter or looter--and defining someone as a “rioter” or a “looter” as opposed to a simple protester is apparently up to the “judgement” of a business owner. “Looting”--as opposed to a simple robbery--would be defined as a “burglary within 500 feet of a violent or disorderly assembly,” which obviously provides an armed vigilante considerable space in determining who is “fair game.” The proposed law would also criminalize “disorderly assemblies” and make blocking traffic a third-degree felony. It would also grant immunity to drivers who “accidentally” hit and kill protesters.
Given Trump’s incomprehensible and seemingly pointless at this late date changes at both the Defense Department and lower level officials in the Department of Homeland Security in recent days, perhaps we can surmise that Trump--in one more fit of juvenile petulance--will with enabling from the new hired help send out the “troops” to stamp out any further sign of resistance to his regime. Or he may just be using his remaining time to “fire” people just because it makes him feel “good” and it shows that even though he lost the election, he’d going to have the “last laugh” for those who were more loyal to the country than to him personally.
And for all the Republican charges that Barack Obama tried to “skirt” the law and the Constitution by promulgating numerous executive orders, what he did was nothing compared to Trump. In just four years, Trump’s 192 executive orders were more than the combined orders signed by Obama and George W. Bush in 16 years. In this way no other president acted more like a dictator than Trump, and he still has two more months to go to do mischief on immigration, and business and environmental regulation; no doubt that weaselly-looking guy named Stephen Miller still thinks he has a “mandate” to do anything his evil heart desires. And of course the pardons are coming for anyone who didn’t “squeal” on Trump.
The fact remains, however, that it really doesn’t matter if Trump does anything or not in these last months, because he will leave Joe Biden with a mountain of work to do from Day One to erase any trace of his monstrous reign--and Trump would deserve it, just as he tried (and failed) to “erase” all trace of Obama’s much more positive historical legacy; Biden’s own election is proof enough of that.
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