Trump's Enemies List is Growing
He's threatened to prosecute those who, in his mind, wronged him, cheated him or worked against his presidency from 2016 through our next election. He's ready for the "Endgame".
History Repeats Itself
It was 53 years ago, one year before the 1972 Presidential election, that Richard Nixon and his cronies, crafted a Confidential Memorandum, Exhibit 48, under the subject, “Dealing with our Political Enemies”.
Paragraph one reads like a thriller about Political Intrigue, as Nixon feared losing his reelection bid.
“This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration. Stated a bit more bluntly -- how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”
Donald Trump is doing exactly the same thing as Nixon did so many years ago, fearing that he won’t win on November 5th, after having sowed so much doubt as to the outcome of the 2020 election to the point that most of his MAGA base actually believed and still believe that he was the rightful winner.
In the days after the 2020 election, Trump was told in no uncertain terms, by his own cabinet members, AG William Barr, FBI Director Wray and his Chief of Cyber and Infrastructure Security, Christopher Krebs, that our election was the most secure in our history, stating on November 12th, 2020, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised”.
Trump then posted on Twitter on November 17th, 2020, the following statement:
This is the complete statement by Trump, which also announced Krebs’s termination:
“There were massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines which changed ... votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more,” Trump tweeted, though those claims are false. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated.”
Trump wanted to fire Wray for contradicting his baseless election fraud claims, but was warned by White House lawyers, including Pat Cipollone, against doing so for fear of creating the perception of a loyalty test, just as he’d done with the firing of Comey during the Russia probe.
When all of the experts and law enforcement officials told Trump that he’d lost and that there was no fraud to the point that would have changed the outcome of either a state or the general election, he knew better and fired the messengers. William Barr announced his departure on December 14th.
Where Trump was getting his information, that was contrary to every expert in the government, became evident in the eyes of Mike Pence, as he put it in his now famous “Crackpot Lawyers” statement:
“Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States!”
Despite this mountain of evidence of a free and fair election with a clear result with Biden as the winner, Trump didn’t believe any of the evidence, but instead conspired with his team of Crackpot Lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and others, all who have either pled guilty, been disbarred or sued for defamation, to overturn the will of the people.
They appointed fake electors chosen by partisan legislators in some of the battleground states, sending these lists to Congress. Trump and his team wanted Mike Pence to not certify the election on Jan 6th, but instead to throw it to the GOP controlled House. Pence refused and certified Biden as the winner. We know what else happened that day.
So let’s get this straight and summarize the baseless 2020 Election fraud claims. All of the experts in the United States government told Trump that the election was free and fair. Biden received 8 million more votes than Trump nationally and won enough of the states to win the Electoral College Vote. Numerous recounts were performed and audits in all the battleground states with no appreciable change in the vote totals. All the state votes were certified and sent onto the Congress.
The 2024 Election
Coming back to present day, Trump is building his case of fraud before the first vote has been cast, challenging Vice President Harris’s nomination as his opponent, again casting doubt on mail in ballots and early voting and exerting control well down the ballot at local election offices throughout the battleground states, even calling out three local election workers as “Fighters”. Trump is again casting doubt, prepping for war, to fight a fight that has no basis in reality. Why would a President praise three low level election workers unless he thought they could or would gum up the works and try to sow doubt in the result. Of course, he’ll only need them if he loses.
There was no fraud in 2020 and will not be any fraud on Nov 5th. The entire GA election system has been controlled by GOP officials for years. They did three recounts in 2020 and found no fraud. The famous phone call with Brad Raffensperger, GA’s Secretary of State, where Trump wanted to find extra votes was a threat by Trump to use the DOJ against him.
According to Donald Trump, “If I lose there must be cheating!”
He’s setting us up for another 2020 should he lose. He’s placed election workers in various position in the battleground states, casted enough doubt to ensure his minions are ready and set to fight the result with any means at his and their disposal, but he is not president this time and can’t wield the power of the US government.
This Tweet is his shot across the bow, a threat to anyone in his way and, should he win, to those enemies from the past. He’s threatened Liz Cheney with a Tribunal and Adam Kinzinger. Retired General Mark Milley was threatened with execution for treason.
Trump’s Enemies List Won’t Stop at High Officials
He’s threatened the license for MSNBC, calling them out for their “illegal political activity”.
He will go after pundits, journalists, bloggers, YouTubers and anyone else he sees as the enemy, not to mention the Project 2025 mandate for cleaning out 50,000 mid level workers in the Civil Service should they not pass his loyalty test. Why would it stop there? Who’s next? Could I, as a lowly blogger with barely 500 subscribers be on his list as his team works their way down the enemies list?
Nixon's "Enemies List" included actor Tony Randall, for his support of liberal causes. And Dr. Benjamin Spock, for the same reason. As Spock ran for President in 1972 to get attention for his speeches (he admitted it), the US Secret Service was watching him, perforce.
Mad magazine gives us this on Enemies Lists:
"E is for Enemies Lists. Ethelbert listed Every Enemy he Ever Encountered. The list was Extensive. It included Ex-Presidents, Entertainers, and Even Engineers. Every Ethnic gropu that Ever Existed was Entered onto Ethelbert's Enemy list. Ethelbert ran for Election and was Easily defeated. Now Ethelbert's Enemy list is Endless. Everybody who voted against Ethelbert is Entered on his Enemy list, almost the Entire Electorate."
Rachel Maddow's opening illustrated monologue on this subject during her show which aired 9-10 ET on msnbc is a master-class on the threat that former President #45 represents to our country, and as always with Rachel, she places this danger in the context of world-history, particularly the history of modern dictatorships which 45 admires. It's must-see. Her guest Anne Appelbaum has written a book which both my companion Dotti and I have read, "Autocracy Inc.," which describes how modern dictatorships support each other through numerous overt and covert networks, and also conspire with fascists living within democracies, folks such as former Fox News evening commentator Tucker Carlson.