The Demise of The Donald

So here is a disclaimer: as an Englishman living in Poland I don't really care whether the President of the United States of America is a Democrat or a Republican.  Doesn't stop me from having and voicing an opinion on the incumbent, however, no matter which side of the aisle he represents.  All I care about is how his policies affect the direction of travel of the States, and how that might affect my life.  So with that in mind, I cannot wait for President Donald Trump to vacate his job and the White House in 60-odd days time.

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I've held off from writing this in the hope that in view of the Election result, he would do the first Presidential thing since his own elevation four years ago - namely, accept the result, concede defeat and offer his Administration's support to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power that is, according to most Americans of either stripe, his sacred duty. It is after all what was afforded to him by the Obamas at the end of their period in office, what President George W. Bush did for the Obamas, and Bill Clinton for the Bushes, and so on back to George Washington.

But no: true to form, Trump has thrown the grandmother of all tantrums and disappeared to his golf course (that's when he's not been sulking in the Oval Office or its toilet), firing off tweet after tweet insisting the election was rigged, he won it, it's all a lie put about by the Fake News Media etc etc - you know the kind of shit he talks.  He's also fired off a whole raft of lawsuits in various states he lost demanding that various counts be annulled or re-done, alleging all kinds of electoral fraud - votes not counted, or counted twice, or made twice (in person and absentee), or done by dead people - without providing a shred of evidence.  Predictably, they have all been kicked out in 5 minute court hearings.

His sons and family and supporters, equally deluded and loyal to a fault, have joined in the bollocks.  Don Jr. has even proposed a revolution as the only way to get the result "the People voted for".  No, Don - that was Trump vacating the office in favour of Joe Biden.   But, hey, when you've spent four years peddling every dumb-arsed conspiracy theory available and trash-talked anyone, whether news organisation, politician or Joe Public, who happens to disagree with you you're not going to change overnight.  These clowns will never change.

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If it were not so tragic it would be laughable.  Trump was the model populist leader: forget Chavez or Orban, Castro or Kaczynski, Salvini or Johnson - none of them can hold a candle to Trump.  Surrounding himself with a bunch of sycophants and being guided initially by a lying fantasist in Steve Bannon, supported by a Fox News Network and various other Murdoch outlets interested only in sales and ratings - as is Trump, The Apprentice host who believed his own publicity - he has ridden roughshod over not only Americans but the country's allies.

Anyone in his Administration who spoke out (always in private: no-one had the balls to do so in public) was summarily dismissed, with a replacement whose loyalty was even more guaranteed by their own cowardice.  NATO, the European Union, the UN, the WHO, the WTO - all felt the lash of his poisonous toungue at various times, often more than once.  Trade wars were launched that have done little except push up prices and harm American workers, and as a by-product damaged everyone else's trade.  Promises have been broken regularly - whatever happened to the "big, beautiful Wall that Mexico is going to pay for"?  If "great clean American coal" was going to be the bedrock of the country's energy provision, why are uneconomic mines closing with the loss of thousands of jobs?  If Obamacare was so bad and destined for the trash can on day one of the Trump Presidency where is its replacement, this "wonderful best in the world medical system" he has touted every couple of months while never revealing any details?  Why are tens of thousands of Americans dying EVERY DAY from a coronavirus pandemic that "America has defeated/its a Chinese hoax/we're turning the corner (delete as you see fit)"?

Broken promises is probably a generous description - LIES is more accurate.  Here's another one: "No American President has done more for the African American community than me."  What about Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery? Lyndon Johnson, who completed the Civil Rights Act that John Kennedy was working on when assassinated?  All Trump has done has openly supported white supremacist groups during a summer of discontent after the killings of the unarmed George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others by white cops.  

And another: "I've brought about the strongest economy in the history of the world".  Nope, the Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat Bill Clinton presided over stronger ones at various times.  And a third: "This agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates brings a new era of peace to the region" - except that Israel and the UAE have never been in conflict with each other, and that Palestine and their Arab nation supporters have condemned it, if anything making the Middle East MORE volatile rather than less. 

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Trump is simply a congenital liar, and somehow or other millions of Americans simply haven't noticed - or, worse, noticed but don't care.  They believe every word the man says, and agree with his complaints that "the Deep State" (whatever the hell THAT is!) and "mainstream media are all against me."  He got himself elected in 2016 by appealling to the fears and imagined persecutions of a legion of largely poorly educated and frequently grudge-carrying unemployed Americans, mostly white men, by painting himself as one of their own.  As a  New York property developer, reality tv star and (allegedly) billionaire quite how he managed it I'm not sure, but swallow the yarn they apparently did.  An even bigger mystery is how even more people voted for him this time around, after four disastrous years that have done precisely the opposite of "Make America Great Again".  As I think P.T.Barnum is quoted as saying: "There's a sucker born every minute".  And most of them seem to be Trump supporters.

The problem now is these people seem unhinged enough to cause mayhem.  Every utterance Trump and his accolytes spout on Fox News or Twitter about stolen elections, the radical left taking over the country (Biden is hardly a radical even if he is a tad politically to the left) merely fans the flames of their discontent.  And Trump and his inner circle know it.  

For example: recently the (Democrat) Governor of the state of Michigan was found to be the proposed victim of a Trump supporting group of white supremacists who hatched a plot to kidnap and perhaps kill her for imposing a fairly loose lockdown in answer to the coronavirus pandemic that Trump has failed completely to handle.   The FBI managed to intervene and capture the conspirators before any harm was done.  Predictably Trump said he knew nothing about the plot (I'll give him that one) but refused to condemn their actions.  Now a few months have passed, and the pandemic is running out of control across the entire country, and Michigan remains one of the worst affected states.  The same Governor has brought in new measures, stricter than those before in another effort to save lives.  As he's still sulking about his defeat, Trump has said nothing, but a surrogate, Dr. Scott Atlas (who knows fuck all about infectious diseases and is not qualified as an immunologist but has somehow convinced Trump he is an "expert") took to Twitter, denounced the Governor's measures and said the only way to stop them being "imposed is to rise up".  A call to arms.......  

And still there is silence from the White House.

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But if this President, though not worthy of the title, is incompetent, his party and its Representatives and Senators in Congress are an absolute disgrace.  For all their mealy mouthed words about a "peaceful transition" they have said very little since the election took place.  A number of leading Republicans - McConnell, Graham, Cruz - continue to publicly support Trump and his frivolous lawsuits that the once respected but now laughable Rudy Giuliani is managing, if I can call it that.  They remain unable to condemn his petulant behaviour and lack of leadership that has been clear for years.  They are, presumably, in fear of their own local electorates and reluctant to lose their own highly lucrative positions, salaries no doubt topped up by lucrative rent-a-quote tv appearances and lobbyist payments.  Cowards to a man.  

Meanwhile the Administration is refusing to co-operate with Biden's Transition Team, refusing to release funding and share critical information - because Trump is still insisting on Twitter that he won the Election.  No co-operation on health while the pandemic rages uncontrolled. No security briefings covering the perennial disputes with North Korea, Iran, Russia, Syria and of course China.  No departmental briefings on the economy, energy, infastructure and health - all of which are standard procedure during a transition. And all because Trump refuses to accept the reality.  He LOST.

Trump was elected on a pledge to "drain the swamp" - his metaphor for a Washington full of seasoned politicians and administrators who, in his delusion, were betraying the American people (as well as keeping them safe, and healthy, and educated, and employed....but we'll gloss over that, the same as he did). What no-one foresaw was that he would fill the swamp with a far more potent and populous bunch of pond life than was already there.  White House Press Sectretaries who are content to lie on tv for their boss.  Secretaries of State who are content to follow a dangerous and unplanned foreign policy agenda that involves appeasing dictators and sharks like Putin and Kim and Netanyahu, and states that "we are preparing for a new Trump administration".  Departmental heads who are not qualified the run their charges (deVos, the idiot running the Post Office whose name escapes me - I can't be bothered to Google it -  or Justice's odious puppet Bill Barr) but will kow-tow to the Leader and do his bidding without question.  Remember Nazi Germany or Leninst Russia?  They ended well didn't they?  Blind devotion to The Leader never works.

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But now, he is going.  Whether he accepts it or not, Trump lost the 2020 Election, both the Electoral College and the popular vote (again: he lost that heavily in 2016 too but a broken electoral system gave him the key to the White House anyway).

The hope was that he would muster the good grace to accept it and shuffle off the stage to a book deal, his golf and an old age away from the spotlight.  It ain't going to happen - the narcissist in him will not allow it.  So we suffer for another couple of months this unedifying spectacle of a silly and fat old man throwing his toys out of the pram and howling "It was rigged!" to all and sundry. Were I American I would be very angry and embarrassed in equal degree.  We are led to believe that he is planning to run again in 2024, no matter what happens this time, when he will be nearly 80 and even more senile,,,,,,please God someone talks him out of that plan!

But on 20th January 2021 at noon, it will come to end, and Joe Biden will be sworn in as 46th President of the United States of America  I don't expect Trump to be there to watch: he will probably be holed up in the Oval Office with his nearest and dearest while the Secret Service batter the door down and drag him kicking and screamning off to Marolago (or hopefully a padded cell)

I can't wait.  It will be rivetting tv, and top the ratings for years to come.  Which is probably what The Donald wants.