A Trump L’Oeil and More Signs of What’s to Come

This week has not been a very good week. First, there was the absolutely devastating spectacle of Vice President Kamala Harris presiding over the certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory. Four years after President Trump sparked an insurrection in a desperate attempt to cling to power, Harris called Monday’s results “nice dayFor democracy. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good day.

Indeed, Harris had no choice but to certify his opponent’s victory. But she wasn’t wrong in identifying Trump as: fascist In the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, Mondays were not a day of celebration. After all, if the outcome had been different and Harris had won, is there anyone who would believe that Trump would have graciously accepted defeat? His disgusting armed mob — some of whom have been terrorizing election officials and threatening to rain death and destruction on political opponents for the past four years — will take to the streets and storm the Capitol again. Is there anyone who would believe that he didn’t? Does anyone really believe that the Republican-led Congress didn’t do everything it could to filibuster it?

But for Democrats, accustomed to working within a system that their opponents have spent years watering down and planning an end-run, all that mattered was showing civility. It conjured up images of well-behaved passengers on the Titanic’s upper floors listening to chamber music played by the ship’s musicians, desperately trying to keep them calm as the ship began to wobble. It was honorable and polite, but in the end it was completely useless.

Then a wildfire, fanned by 160 mph winds and exacerbated by a lack of rainfall, exploded in Los Angeles. As I write this column Thursday evening, at least 10 people are dead, thousands are homeless, tens of thousands have been evacuated, and much of Los Angeles’ most beautiful coastal land has been reduced to piles of ash. . I must have driven through the Pacific Palisades area hundreds of times in my life. Overnight, the beauty of Sunset Boulevard descending into the Pacific Ocean was transformed into a scene of apocalyptic devastation. It’s devastating.

Again, this wasn’t really a quality week.

Add to that the growing sound of threats against lawyers, judges, and elected officials who have tried to hold President Trump accountable for his misdeeds over the past four years. Last week, President Trump convened politicians involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol for a Congressional hearing. be imprisoned. (He previously said Special Counsel Jack Smith should be expelled Originally from the United States. ) and New York state judge Juan Marchan, who presided over the hush money trial.deprived” Trump also said this week. promised to fire National Archives officials reported to the Justice Department that he had taken confidential documents.

And instead of anyone holding him accountable, he is being rewarded again and again for his despicable words and actions. This week, Marchan said that despite a jury finding Trump guilty on more than 30 charges, not impose penalties In the hush money case. A few days later, Shameless Judge Eileen Cannonnow serving as a minor rather than a judge, blocked the release of Smith’s report as evidence that led to the charges in the secret documents case.

Meanwhile, as President Trump purges his inner circle, the president-elect’s minions are itching to unleash the U.S. military on protesters and asylum seekers in the country and launch a series of shows using the full power of the Justice Department. are. It’s a trial befitting totalitarian mid-century Europe. And in a media environment where tech moguls like the meta Mark Zuckerberg are lining up to kiss the ring, he has used fact-checking to essentially obviate efforts to curb far-right propaganda. He did it by re-arranging the rules and showering Trump with them. Apple CEO Tim Cook also joined Zuckerberg and others in donating to the inaugural celebration.

At the same time, Company X owner and unelected presidential candidate Elon Musk became a full-fledged fascist. After calling on Germans to elect neo-Nazi AfD party to government in December, Britain should jail Prime Minister Starmer, release far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and invite US to ‘liberate’ Britain He declared that. A government of your own choosing. How the United States seeks to interact with its closest ally is not necessarily business as usual. In fact, Mr. Musk’s actions are so outrageous and despicable that senior british politician They called on Mr Starmer to request a meeting with the US ambassador to express his dissatisfaction with bigwig interference in Britain’s internal affairs.

To close out the shitshow, President Trump gave the following speech: press conference On Tuesday, he threatened Panama, Denmark, and Canada (the latter two countries are all NATO allies and could conceivably be attacked by the United States invoking NATO Article 5) by immediately overthrowing them and denying them their territory and sovereignty. threatened war and economic ruin unless it was abandoned. This is in response to President Trump’s increasingly megalomaniac demands. Almost as an afterthought, he promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of the Americas,” to which Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by suggesting that North America be called the “Gulf of the Americas.” name changed “American Mexicana” or “Mexican American”. Well done.

Why would Donald Trump want vast, icy Greenland (population 56,000)? Perhaps, despite his climate change denialism, Greenland’s vast reserves will be rare earth elementsElements such as yttrium, scandium, neodymium, and dysprosium will become increasingly available in the coming decades, given that the world relies on cell phones, computers, batteries, and other products that incorporate these elements. and will become an increasingly important geopolitical asset. Also, 6th largest uranium deposit in the worldGreenland’s government has banned mining, something the nuclear-armed state would clearly want. Additionally, the Arctic region is home to some of the world’s largest undeveloped areas. oil and gas deposits. Furthermore, as the Arctic Ocean melts, it will ultimately control shipping lanes critical to global maritime trade. President Trump’s rationale for seizing this vast island is not unlike that of the great British imperialists who once secured Singapore, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. .

My old friend Anders Krab Johansen, CEO and publisher of the Danish media company Berlingske Media (born in Greenland to Danish parents), explained it to me: I did. Global tensions between the West and China and Russia are increasing. Greenland is home to rare minerals and is key to the Arctic trade routes. ”

In President Trump’s “might is right” worldview, that means it is an asset for the United States to seize.

President Trump’s America First policy is taking shape in every aspect. If anyone seriously thinks that the second act of his presidency is to lower the price of eggs and pressure the federal government to lower interest rates, they should be doing something else. All the fuss of the economic populist campaign was, to put it simply, Trump L’oeil, an optical illusion that hid its true intentions.

Sure, he’ll pressure the Fed on interest rates, and he might succeed in lowering egg prices, but that’s just a sideshow. The real story is developing into a brutal power grab at home and abroad.

Just as we all should have done eight years ago, it’s wise to take his word for it this time too. At the time, many commentators assured those of us who were genuinely horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency that his promise was simply a rant. Then he got elected and did exactly what he said he would do, including implementing a Muslim travel ban, separating families at the border, and cutting off immigrants from various forms of public assistance. . This time, he is promising an America First policy that threatens to destroy centuries of alliances and recast America as a nakedly imperialist power. lebensraum and obedient in every way.

Instead of making a fuss about how acquiescence and cooperation are good for democracy, Democrats must offer strong, principled opposition to this increasingly megalomaniac policy. . Things will only get worse from here, and the world needs a principled opposition in the United States.