The Trump Amnesia

Americans should know better . . . but are discounting the dangers of a second term

An illusion has set it on the Trump Presidency, from much of the  public and a few prominent Americans who should know better; what naturally follows is a delusion, discounting the dangers of a second term.

A plurality  of voters express favorable views of the Republican's Presidency and every  poll shows Trump's record  on the economy scoring higher than Biden's. On the leadership level, that's expected of self-interested Republicans but it also is reflected by establishment types like J.P. Morgan's Jamie Dimon's claims that Trump did pretty well on NATO,  immigration, the economy and tax cuts.

Fears of a second term, supposedly, are exaggerated. Trump's rhetoric, they say, is overblown and, besides, there are checks and balances.

These people  need a reality check. The Trump economy, before Covid, was pretty impressive though not as good as Joe Biden's first three years. Overall the Trump years were marked by corruption and chaos, culminating in a violent  effort to overturn a legitimate election. 

The 2024 national dialogue needs a closer, more sustained look at the real Trump record, the authoritarian measures that he says he would do if elected  this time and the  dozens of people who served in the Trump Administration, starting with Vice President Pence, that say he's unfit to serve again.

Trump claims he created the best economy in our history before Covid. There were seven million new jobs; in the same stretch there were 14 million under Biden. (Inflation, under the Democrat, has been higher though that's a  worldwide phenomenon.)

It's the Trump Covid story that's unconscionable. In the beginning, in real time, he told journalist Bob Woodward that he knew the Pandemic might be much worse, a crisis, but purposely downplayed it, His own Covid adviser, Deborah Birx, and credible studies and comparative analyses indicate this malfeasance probably cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

There are grandparents, spouses, siblings, children that are not here today to play in the park, go to school, take in a game, productively work or participate in loving family bonding, sacrificed at the altar of Trump's political calculations. 

The corruption in those years was the most egregious in more than 40 years. Four cabinet level officers were forced to resign due to ethical transgressions as were several White House aides, Trump's first national security adviser  was criminally convicted, top campaign operatives went to the slammer.  

There is such a future shock we forget some sleaze. How many readers  remember Brenda Fitzgerald ? Trump named her to direct the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),the top public health official. After only months she had to resign when it was revealed she invested in a tobacco company a month into the job.   

As for  Mr. Dimon, who said his bank could do well under either man,  President Trump did call on NATO countries to increase their defense budgets as have most Presidents since Dwight Eisenhower.  His national security adviser, John Bolton, says he almost certainly would pull out of NATO in any second term.  He did crack down on immigration but reveled in a policy that separated children from their parents,  Tax reform was terrific for those making $36 million a year, like Dimon; the main effect for his bank's tellers making $48,000 is  more crushing debt facing their children and grandchildren. 

To anticipate what a second term would look like, ignore his critics and first look at his final two years after he learned better how to exercise, and abuse, power.  Many of the more respected figures in his Administration left, replaced by personally loyal second raters.   He was impeached the first time for trying to shake down the President of Ukraine, by threatening to withhold vital assistance unless he dished dirt on Joe Biden. The second impeachment was for trying to illicitly overturn the 2020 election. In his final months he unleashed plans to eviscerate  the civil service. 

This, he makes clear in a recent Time magazine interview and elsewhere, is the starting point for a second term, Most government employees would be responsible to one person --him. He  likely will try to gut the independence of the Federal Reserve and most federal agencies; it's hard to imagine he doesn't have his sights on the Internal Revenue Service.

He plans mass deportations, internment/concentration camps  for migrants and expresses little hesitation about using the military for domestic purposes, the Posse Comitatus prohibition be damned.

He believes he can do much of this by executive action.

A special priority will be the Department of Justice, the vehicle for his proclaimed "retribution" against political enemies. 

Checks and balances or guardrails ? Dream on.  If Trump wins Republicans  almost surely will take the Senate, and possibly the House too. There won't be any John McCains or Mitt Romneys. Trump has expunged or tamed  conscience -stricken Republicans.

Don't count on the Supreme Court. The oral arguments on Trump's claim that, as President, he has total immunity from any actions -- he's above the law -- resonated with some of the conservative Justices who basically ignored the centerpiece of the case, the Trump-inspired January 6 violent insurrection.

If elected, Trump has made clear a litmus test for his appointments: loyalty not to the country or the constitution but to Donald J Trump.

He learned  from earlier appointees who had a different take on loyalty only to one man.  A number of former high level Trump aides, like Defense Secretary James Mattis,  say he'd be a national security risk. Former  White House chief of staff John Kelly says Trump has "contempt for our constitution and the rule of law."

A one-time confidant turned critic, Chris Christie, warns Trump is "an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as President because  he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him."