Trump & Justice Play Russian Roulette

Donald Trump's about to launch a third presidential bid to protect himself from prosecution

Photo by Shea Huening at Flickr

An article in the New York Times on Friday tells the story of a nation that is struggling to shield its own democracy from imminent destruction, even as the forces that are tearing it apart show no signs of retreating. Rather, the man leading America’s violent antidemocratic movement is doubling down, and lashing out, in a desperate battle of wills between the rule of law and the will of an aspiring dictator.

It’s an increasingly dangerous game, and the stakes continue to mount. A wrong move would prove disastrous, and possibly fatal.

The nation’s fate, and the survival of American democracy, are being decided in a game of Russian Roulette, or perhaps chicken, between the DOJ and Donald Trump. Who will blink first?

Trump’s back on the warpath, threatened by congressional and criminal investigations digging deep into his prolific wrongdoing. He’s destined for a fiery collision with Joe Biden’s mild-mannered attorney general, Merrick Garland, who seems cautious to the point of paralysis, as he weighs a monumental decision over whether or not to indict a former American president.

A democracy that can’t enforce the rule of law is a dead democracy.

The January 6 House Select Committee has recently produced some extraordinarily damaging testimony from the innermost sanctum of Donald Trump’s White House, shattering the wall of silence insulating his blatant criminality from public scrutiny.

Cassidy Hutchinson’s stunning testimony painted the most complete, and damning, portrait of Trump’s failed coup d’etat thus far, giving unique insight into his malevolent intentions on January 6th, providing essential evidence for any future prosecution. She largely confirmed what we already knew, in that Trump used violence to try to keep himself in power, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, coupled with a wide ranging conspiracy involving false electors, and blatant fraud.

It’s all in the details, horrific as they are, and Hutchinson provided them from her vantage point deep inside the West Wing.

Among other things, Trump wanted his supporters, armed with AR-15's, to be allowed to pass through his own security cordon; he physically fought with his own secret service chief to appear at the U.S. Capitol to personally lead the insurrection he’d just unleashed.

Worse, he wanted his own vice president dead, sending a tweet that, for all intents and purposes, was a death sentence for a crowd already braying to string Mike Pence up from their waiting gallows.

“He deserves it,” the president snarled to Mark Meadows.

Of course, this is hardly surprising to those of us unmoved by the Republican Party’s extensive and elaborate efforts to clean up after their boss’s coup with lies, dissimulation, and disinformation. Still, even the best propaganda only goes so far when credible eyewitnesses flip, and spill their secrets.

This historic crime’s sloppily constructed coverup has fallen apart, revealing the ugly truth about an American president’s violent coup. There’s no more question of 1/6 being anything but an attempt to overthrow the government.

Thus, January 6 was exactly what it looked like, a botched coup from above, led by a rampaging president doing everything in his power to stay in power, despite being decisively voted out of office by the American people.

To put an exclamation point on Donald Trump’s sheer lawlessness, numerous credible allegations of witness tampering and intimidation have emerged from the congressional investigation. This is an old Trump tactic to keep his former confidantes from straying too far out of his orbit; it shows a man who is more of a crime boss, than anything else, and remains utterly unafraid to break the law. It’s astonishing.

Indeed, Donald Trump is the leader of a violent criminal syndicate with political pretensions, and he’s spitting in the eye of the Department of Justice, daring them to act.

For his part, the former president intuitively understands the power of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony to hurt him, politically and legally. He also understands how to fight back, and lash out, by raising the stakes higher, yet again.

He has almost nothing to lose at this point, and everything to gain. Why play defense when you can play offense?

Thus, the article describes Trump’s ongoing discussions with his aides, which are apparently very serious, about him announcing a third consecutive presidential bid as soon as this month, in a brazen play to preempt the federal investigation into his crimes. It’s classic Trump.

Of course, this would mark an official return to the existential crisis threatening to strangle American democracy, although I’m not sure it ever really ended. Perhaps Joe Biden’s presidency has been more of a brief reprieve from the forces devouring America, rather than their conclusion.

Nevertheless, a third Trump bid is a terrifying prospect, and it seems, an increasingly likely one. This country faces a grim test, indeed, where more political violence, perhaps much more political violence, is in the offing.

After all, nobody expects Donald Trump to win a general election, just as no one expects him to gracefully lose. Rather, he seems likely to leave it to his many violent, well-armed, and radicalized supporters to enforce the electoral results in his favor. He’s done it once, he’ll do it again.

Republican politicians, meanwhile, clearly aren’t going to stop him.

Trump’s favorite little puppy dog sycophant Lindsey Graham has lately encouraged him to announce his bid, after disavowing him in the aftermath of the insurrection. Like nearly every other Republican politician, with the exception of a brave (and reviled, among Republicans) Liz Cheney, Graham simply lacks the spine to do anything but bathe in Trump’s adulation.

It’s disgusting, and frightening. Simply put, the GOP is broken, whipped, nothing more than an empty vessel for Donald Trump to exploit.

The power of politics.

Trump understands the power of politics to insulate him from the DOJ’s encroaching investigation. He knows that he can wield another candidacy as both a shield and a sword, to ward off oncoming investigations as “politically motivated witch hunts,” while threatening to unleash political violence with a wink and a nod, much like he’s done before.

Frankly, Trump’s a master at such diversionary magic tricks.

He knows the DOJ is looking very hard at him and his inner circle right now, but he grasps that Merrick Garland already feels constrained to act, because of the sensitive political nature of indicting a former American president. By announcing his candidacy, Trump further exploits the weakness of the investigation, daring the DOJ to indict a presidential candidate.

His potential candidacy represents a perilous turn for the United States, a bridge that once crossed, won’t easily be undone.

With clumsy witness intimidation happening behind the scenes, in clear violation of state and federal law, the DOJ is at risk of being outmaneuvered by Trump, even as the country falls apart around him.

We’re entering an acutely dangerous moment in America.

The country could conceivably come apart, with politics devolving into violence, or even civil war. With the Supreme Court throwing around the weight of a radicalized right wing minority, and constant partisan warfare, Trump’s third candidacy could very well push America right over the edge.

At this point, the only solution to a brazen criminal intent on taking power by any means necessary is an intervention from the Department of Justice, but with so much hemming and hawing, they seem unlikely to meet the moment.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down. If Republicans retake control of the House in the midterms, as predicted, the January 6 hearings are over, finished, snuffed out. From that point, Trump’s path widens significantly.

With the fate of America’s battered democracy at stake, and a predator circling his prey, only an active defensive posture will protect our freedom from extinction.

Whether or not that happens is anyone’s guess. The Biden administration has seemingly failed to grasp the mounting danger of this moment, projecting an air of business as usual during what is an utterly extraordinary period in America.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump isn’t laying down his weapon. Rather, he’s going on an offensive that is certain to leave America maimed, and perhaps shattered for good.

Will anyone stop him?