Trump Broke & Divided Our Nation: The Never Ending Trump Legacy
He polarized thought, spoken language and the written word. We've been segregated into Pro and Anti Trump.
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump has taken over, not only the political news cycle, but more broadly, has divided our nation over the past seven years, with no end in sight. When Trump ran for president in 2016, no one, and I mean no one, including Trump himself, believed he would win. The story goes back a little further though, when "The Donald" was sitting stewing at the White House Correspondent's dinner with President Obama at the helm. Obama poked fun at The Donald like no one had before. It was The 2011 Dinner that changed everything. Trump was publicly ridiculed to his face. He'd been at the forefront of challenging Obama's constitutional right to be president with the false claims that Obama was not a citizen. Obama roasted him on that "Birther Issue", the moon landing, and on and on. Trump was seething inside, but could only hold a painful smile as the "Beatdown" continued. Those around him could feel the tension and anger. It was at this moment he decided to run for president.
When Trump announced his intention to run in 2015, no one believed he had a chance to win or even make a good showing in the primaries with such luminaries, as Jeb Bush, was coming off a stint as Governor of Florida, seen as the heir apparent to the presidency, joining his father and brother on the throne. The other candidates; Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others had much more in the way of political knowledge and credibility. Trump was a businessman, sometimes successful and sometimes not with bankruptcies and sketchy business practices, but also managed a popular reality show, The Apprentice, where he was the star with a real flair for bravado and self promotion.
The GOP establishment, many behind Bush, had no time for Trump and didn't even give him a second look. The donor class was also staying away. Hillary Clinton was seen as the Democrat's best hope with a name, credentials as the Secretary of State and a party behind her. The media mostly ignored Trump and hitched their horses to other GOP candidates, not giving The Donald much of a chance, his campaign seen as a longshot gimmick. As the primaries began and the debates started, even though Trump lost early on to Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucus, he began to gain ground. Jeb Bush floundered quickly and was simply no match for Trump on stage. The others realized the same thing. Trump, a newcomer to politics, was winning on the popularity front and unlocking a simmering primal fear in rural right wing voters with his immigration stance, saying that Mexico was sending "Drugs, Crime and Rapists" to the US across a porous border. Where Jeb Bush courted the Latino vote and spoke Spanish, Trump bashed Mexico for not sending the right people and promised to build a great wall. The fear mongering had begun, but on a level never seen before. Not even George Bush Sr's revolving prison gate ad came close, as Bush's ad was aimed at actual felons. Trump's attacks were seemingly aimed at an entire ethnic group and worse.
Despite bleak predictions and little media support, Trump rose to the top, in part, due to his personal attacks on the rest of the field, but more importantly, the awakening of our worst fears. He whipped up anxiety and found supporters for his anti immigrant stance about both Muslims and Mexicans, but also on guns and overall foreign policy. He pledged to pull us out of the Iran deal and to push NATO to spend their fair share. These issues, and the wall that Mexico would pay for, but didn't, put Trump just behind Hillary Clinton. By election day, 2016, Hillary was confident of victory, but one issue hung over her, the private email server and FBI Director, James Comey's comments about the ongoing investigation. Many observers, including Clinton herself, felt that this issue turned the tide, giving Trump the win and proving wrong the many polls. Even an audio recording of Trump saying he could touch a woman's private parts, if he wanted, didn't sway voters.
What most voters and the media were missing was the lowering of the bar for what was considered "normal" speech from a presidential candidate. It started slowly and continued moving down with each vitriolic statement from Trump as a candidate and then as president. He made fun of Marco Rubio's hands, said that Jeb Bush had to like the Mexican Illegals because of his Latina wife. He insulted Carly Fiorina's face, said blood was coming out of Megyn Kelly's eyes and finally, the most horrifying statement, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” He was right and no one realized it. With each incendiary comment, that would have sunk other candidates, Trump simply doubled down and was never really challenged. Everyone just shook their heads and moved on, not realizing they were empowering the most dangerous force in our nation's history. A few, namely Lindsay Graham, spoke out, as well as John McCain and some others, but the realization of Trump as president forced some political expediency on the part of Graham.
Trump's inauguration started a long and seemingly endless supply of incendiary speeches and Tweets that continue to this day. The speech, itself, was full of fire, brimstone and almost entirely negative, with American Carnage, rather than the uplifting style of past presidents. Even the size of the crowd was touted as the largest ever, though not true. Some of his policies bore fruit with tax cuts for corporations passing, several Supreme Court appointees and an overall sound economy. NATO nations began to pay more. He made good on several promises when he pulled the US out of the Iran Deal, withdrew from the Paris Accord and put sanctions on China. He made overtures to Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin, even taking Putin's word over the intelligence community concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election. When he proposed a travel ban on Muslims coming into the US from seven nations, only a few people in the GOP spoke out. He made his famous and "Perfect" phone call to the newly elected leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, another reality show political newcomer on the world stage, and tried to extort information on Joe Biden in return for arms. (Impeachment No. 1) He used a Sharpie to redraw a weather map because he included the wrong state in a hurricane warning and didn't want to be wrong in his statement, but his coup de grace of misstatements and lies really took off in January of 2020 when, as he said, The Chinese Virus, (COVID) landed on our shores.
To be fair, COVID would have wreaked havoc with our nation and wrecked the economy regardless of who was president. Trump can no more be blamed for the 14 percent unemployment and the changes to our working lives and economy any more than Joe Biden be given credit for the jobs coming back and the resurgence of our economy. COVID didn't care about position or party, but under Trump, science and the traditional federal response took a backseat to conspiracies, false claims of fringe cures and treatments and a mafia, with Jared Kushner at the helm, that took over the role of FEMA and the traditional response of our other federal agencies. Kushner and his team bypassed FEMA and other agencies, dolling out respirators and mask stockpiles, using them to garner favor with certain governors and holding the items hostage in other cases, wanting fealty in return. This bungling team was not qualified to handle the pandemic and allocation of PPE, but they tried and ended up getting in the way of traditional federal policies and procedures.
COVID suddenly became a political weapon to be leveraged against those in Trump's sights, as not worthy. He would hear an anecdotal report of a chemical or alternative treatment from a fringe news outlet or even a "Joe Blow" website and tout it as a treatment or cure on national TV during his daily COVID press conferences. The right wing media chimed in on Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, with Trump pushing a theory that bright lights, shined on the human body or even injecting bleach or hand sanitizer into the veins of those with the illness, would cure the virus, much to the dismay of the medical community. Science was taking a backseat to politics and the rumor mill. He then set his sights on Dr Fauci, the nations preeminent expert on infectious disease. Fauci had the audacity to bring science into the Oval Office. Trump didn't like science and facts as they got in the way of his own vast knowledge of medicine. He did push hard on developing a vaccine, Operation Warp Speed, and science was ready with CRISPR, however.
The entire world was wracked by COVID as the 2020 reelection neared with Trump running unopposed and Biden stumbling out of the gate in the first few primaries, but after South Carolina, Joe was the man to take on Trump. The run up to election day was mostly typical sparring about the virus, minimum wage, Bidencare/Obamacare/Medicaid, and foreign policy, but Trump fired a shot at Biden's personal finances with unsubstantiated accusations of influence payments. Election day and evening was a back and forth with Biden in the lead, then Trump, then Biden going into the overnight with several states unable to count mail-in ballots in a timely manner setting up recounts. Fox News threw Arizona to Biden, sealing the deal, but Trump wanted to declare victory and would have stopped the counting nationwide if he could. In the end, after recounts in several battleground states, Biden was the clear winner, both in popularity and in the Electoral College. Little did we know what was going on behind the scenes on election night and over the next few weeks and months with an almost, "Seven Days in May", scenario, with every movie script story one can imagine about a coup, but in real life. Trump had telegraphed his election denialism grand plan before the first vote was cast saying, “Remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.” The Die was cast. The Donald doesn't lose and if he does lose, it's rigged.
Behind the scenes, between election night and inauguration day, a secret plan was taking shape to overturn the will of the people, pitting fringe theories and rumors against state election officials, the truth, the courts and eventually, the Congress. Never before had our election system been called into question. There were always reports of some people voting twice, dead people voting and some other irregularities around the nation, but the numbers were in the hundreds nationwide and never enough to change the outcome of an election. Trump's group of conspirators were not from within his cabinet, but came from the fringes and met outside of official meetings. The one name, Rudy Giuliani, was the group's most prominent member, but his luster had long since faded. Other members were Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone and chief of staff, Mark Meadows. These conspirators were starting with a predetermined conclusion and looking for anecdotal examples to prove their case rather than letting the evidence drive a conclusion.
Some in the media, mainly Fox News, joined the election denialism chorus. Members of Congress began to question the results without a shred of evidence to back up their case. Phone calls were made to state election officials in states where mandatory recounts were in progress. Trump called officials in AZ and GA to have them "find votes". Even though recount after recount was showing that Biden won, Trump and his team refused to accept the loss. His legal team went on TV to cast doubt about the election with wild accusations of ballot destruction, vote flipping by Dominion voting machines, Italian satellites and a condemnation of mail in ballots. Once in court, however, many of their theories were dropped and every single court case failed, many before Trump appointed judges. Bolstering Trump's claims of election fraud, was the fact that several states, Pennsylvania being the worst, had many issues tallying votes. In some cases, printers didn't work, others were hampered by staff shortages with the shear number mail-in ballots, causing delays for days after the election. Trump lost most of his cases with the state courts and 43 of 44 cases in the federal courts. No significant evidence of voter fraud was found and by the end of December 2020, Trump was out of options, but was he? He broached the subject of having the military seize voting machines in swing states until he was convinced otherwise.
His off-book team continued to push fraudulent claims, coming from even farther right "sources" such as My Pillow founder, Mike Lindell, who kept promising explosive new information, but never offered any. John Eastman, Trump's personal lawyer, was postulating a theory that state legislatures could throw out the state vote if they felt there was evidence of fraud and select new electors to send to Washington, exempt from court challenges. He was also pushing another position whereby Mike Pence could delay the vote certification. Trump's Attorney General, William Barr, told Trump point blank that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. None of this mattered to Trump, to some in the media or to a growing number of far right Congressman who actually voted against the Jan 6th certification. Fraudulent electors were chosen by at least one state. In addition to the team of coup conspirators, various far right groups, The Proud Boys and others listened to Trump's call-to-arms Tweet from December 19, saying, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," he wrote, referring to the day Congress was set to formally certify Joe Biden's victory in the electoral college. "Be there, will be wild!" Then on Jan 6th, at the gathering with throngs of supporters, Trump issued his most threatening language. "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," Trump said, whipping up the crowd to a frenzy with some, ready to storm the Capitol with plans made over the previous weeks and months. He wanted Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification under the guise of election fraud, but Pence held firm as the assault on the Capitol started, ending with an evacuation of the House Chamber, over 140 police injured and one rioter shot and killed trying to breach a police barricade. Lawmakers reconvened late into the night and certified the election. (Impeachment No. 2)
During the afternoon of the riot, at the White House, Trump watched television for hours as the rioters stormed the Capitol building, smashed windows, called for the hanging of Mike Pence, invaded members offices and assaulted policeman. Much of what transpired within the administration was shrouded in mystery as hours of phone logs went missing, likely not an accident. Calls to the president, to call of the mob, from Sean Hannity, Don Trump Jr, Ivanka and others from every part of Trump's inner and outer circle went unheeded. Late in the day, when he finally and grudgingly made a statement, the outtakes show both his support for the rioters and disdain for having to publicly call for peace and to admit the election was over with Biden as the winner. Rumors of Trump wanting to stay in the White House regardless of the finality of the election confirmation process spread, setting up a possible constitutional crisis, but in the end, he left, not even attending the inauguration of Joe Biden, going against the centuries old tradition with only seven presidents not in attending. Only Nixon, in modern times, failed to show for obvious reasons as he'd resigned from office in disgrace. Trump broke the mold or molds for what a president says and does in and out of office. He forever divided us, destroyed our national spirit, our fundamental trust in institutions and nearly pulled down Ronald Reagan's "Shining City Upon A Hill". Not surprisingly, our image abroad took a huge hit under Trump, but rebounded with President Biden's election as a dose of sanity moved back into the White House.
After leaving office, Trump continued to push the "Big Lie" of election fraud, even after the Jan 6th committee brought out irrefutable evidence of Trump's illegal activities from immediately after the election through Jan 6th, 2021. Former officials in his administration began to turn on him, just as many testified before the committee. He, in turn, turned on them, the very same officials tagged as the best and brightest at the time of their appointments, calling them names a middle school bully wouldn't use. These former administration officials, cabinet members, DOJ leadership and brave members of Congress told the truth about Trump inviting his wrath and promise of retribution should he ever get back in the White House. Some members retired fearing a sure loss in 2022 as the tried and true Trump minions turned on them. Others, as in the case of Rep. Liz Cheney, were vilified for displaying honor and telling the truth and lost their seats to MAGA loyalists. These loyalist's only requirement was to invoke the big like to get on Trump's radar for an endorsement.
As the 2022 midterms approached, with Trump's popularity still very high among his entrenched base, it was thought the GOP would make huge gains in both the House, Senate and in several Gubernatorial races. It was touted as the red wave. They did gain control of the house with the slimmest of majorities, but failed to take the senate, instead losing one seat. The Red Wave as a red trickle with voter rejecting many of the far right election denying candidates. It seemed as if the people were ready to move beyond the 2020 election and bring back some sanity.
Were Trump not running for the presidency in 2024 or otherwise gone from the scene, the nation might have a chance to heal, but we aren't that lucky. He is the nominee again from a damaged and bleeding GOP full of Tweeting celebrity politicians looking for "Likes". They've spent more time investigating Biden at the behest of their frontrunner, and he has called for retribution against any perceived enemy from the past. If elected, he pledges to purge the Deep State, destroy the Civil Service, go after social media, clamp down on immigrants, control education at the federal level, push a national ban on abortion and restrict voting. In addition, a ramped up investigation of Biden and the rehashing of the 2020 election will be his priorities. It's a toss up as of this writing with age, inflation, the war in Ukraine, Social Security, LGBTQ rights and the border issue topping the concerns of Americans. If Trump wins the White House again, the crack in the Liberty Bell and our nation may widen and become irreparable.
It’s a great system. I didn’t go quite that far, but I like it. I focused on ranked choice, which isn’t too far off.
Very minor note, genitals > private parts