Trump’s re-election last month was literally an incredible event. He was spectacularly unfit to become president in 2016. His first four year term clearly demonstrated that, as he turned the world’s most powerful nation into a laughing stock. His record of 30,573 lies (according to The Washington Post), is a record that no previous officeholder ever got anywhere near, and is only likely to be equalled or exceeded by him in his second term. This is not even to mention his narcissism, incompetence, grifting, ignorance of the world and total disdain of every courtesy and constitutional norm America had.
There is a lot of fear that he will launch a reign of terror for Democrats and perceived enemies in his own party as well as the media once ensconced in The White House. I thought at first that fear was overdone, but now I’m not so sure.
Mitch McConnell, the long-serving Kentucky senator and former majority leader of the Senate, has given an interview to the FT, in which he issues a warning from America’s past:
“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before world war two,” he says. “Even the slogan is the same. ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”
This is the fear that the USA is turning to isolationism as they did in the middle of the last century. McConnell mentioned Robert Taft who ran against Dwight Eisenhower for the Republican presidential nomination in 1952 and had opposed lend-lease, the creation of NATO and the Marshall Plan. “Thank goodness Eisenhower beat him" McConnell says.
He is talking now about Trump and his MAGA movement who have a similar agenda to Taft. McConnell helped Trump avoid impeachment in 2021 so if he’s now worried about a dangerous world he should reflect seriously on his part in bringing it about.
Trump has said that enemies within the US are 'more dangerous than Russia and China' although McConnell says he doesn't agree with that, you wouldn't necessarily accept it given his record of partisanship over the years. He claims he will from now on be one of the people 'pushing back'. This is what I was counting on, however, I'm not so sure now.
America is among the most decentralised nations on earth. Individual states have an awful lot of freedom to raise taxes, pass laws, and adopt standards that are different to other states, and they jealously guard this autonomy. Trump has the most freedom in foreign affairs but he still needs to have funding approved by Congress. He can attempt to do a lot of things domestically but was expected to face a lot of opposition and legal obstacles in both red and blue states.
So, an article in Mother Jones, an independent online nonprofit news outlet, struck me as interesting. They ask if he will need a 'police state' to get his agenda through.
The piece talks of Trump using police state tactics to create an “atmosphere of terror and intimidation” and I think this may not altogether be an exaggeration. Ridiculous as it may seem, it seems the 'atmosphere' is already being created for him as we see below.
Time Magazine for instance has dubbed the president-elect "Person of the Year" and put him on the front cover.
Why? This is their excuse:
“Although the American presidency has evolved across these eras, its influence has not diminished. Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of populism, a widening mistrust in the institutions that defined the last century, and an eroding faith that liberal values will lead to better lives for most people. Trump is both agent and beneficiary of it all.
“For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America’s role in the world, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year.”
Trump, Time says, is both agent and beneficiary of a mistrust in institutions and a diminishing of the belief that liberal values will improve the lives of ordinary people. He has done more to accelerate both than any man alive. This is what gets you to be Time's Person of The Year.
The notion that his authoritarian agenda will change things for the better anywhere is laughable. I don’t think he’s a fascist or has any ideology at all. He has zero understanding of any political ethos and is just out to avoid jail, big himself up and make more money.
In that respect, he's unlike any other conventional Western political figure of the last hundred years or more. He doesn’t believe in Making America Great Again only in forcing his followers to accept that he has, a task he will almost certainly be successful in. They will believe anything he says.
But he is in truth a blank sheet of paper, albeit a very dangerous and unpredictable one. Nobody knows what he’ll do.
After Time interviewed him they fact-checked what he said. His second term will clearly be the same as the first, full of provable lies. The stunning thing is they had to do this at all. Most politicians try to avoid outright lies, Trump wallows in them and it doesn't seem to damage him in the least, if anything it's the reverse.
What should be worrying is the way rich and powerful men are already ‘obeying in advance’ a phrase invented by Professor Timothy Snyder to describe the way dictatorships, despots, fascism, and authoritarian regimes work.
When it becomes clear that the emerging leader is bent on revenge and little else, those with wealth, power, and something significant to lose, don’t wait for bad things to happen to them, they anticipate what the leader wants and do it. Chris Wray, for example, Trump's head of the FBI appointed in his first term, is to resign on 20 January although he didn't need to, to allow Kash Patel, Trump's newfound sycophant and all-round nut-job to take over the task of pursuing his political opponents.
"Historian Timothy Snyder has referred to this as 'obeying in advance,' or 'anticipatory obedience' — leaders, politicians, and institutions either fear what will happen if they resist, or think they can benefit from fascist takeover and so comply without a fight."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 12 December 2024 at 17:22
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Mark Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, etc) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon and The Washington Post) have each donated $1 million to Trump’s transition fund. Musk, who once said Trump was too old to become POTUS, spent $277 million to help get him elected.
The US broadcaster ABC is paying $15 million to Trump’s foundation to settle a claim for deformation after a programme host said Trump had been found guilty of raping E Jean Carroll by 'a jury'. In fact the jury’s verdict was for sexual assault. It was a judge who later suggested that it amounted to rape. Most legal experts think that technical slip should have been easily defendable but ABC decided they ought to settle to avoid his wrath.
These are all things that others in similar positions in government departments, businesses, and the media are watching and learning lessons from.
A complete fool is bending the most powerful nation on earth to his will. Future historians will be debating this for years to come.
