This is What Trump Expected the First Time…
Meandering nonsense highlighted by searches for bamboo fibers, and official lies issued from Mar-a Lago, are exactly what Donald Trump expected to be doing in 2016. The 2020 election with Joe Biden as his opponent was what he expected the first time around with Hillary Clinton; a loss. I am almost positive, locked away in a vault next to his questionable tax returns and curriculum for Trump University are hours of video footage from his campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump spent months preparing himself for reality TV programming and his devotees for the loss. He claimed the Big Rigging was being put in place, setting up his minions for a money grab in what he thought would follow his inevitable defeat. Lo and behold the Russians saw and seized the opportunity to lay siege to, arguably, the most successful form of government in history, not perfect but successful. So while he went about ruining the courts, the Department of Justice, and our intelligence agencies, his dyed roots were greying as fast as his dwindling bank accounts. He knew the job was over his head and the dizzying heights of responsibility were far greater than he could handle.
The script for Trump’s reality show was acted out four years too late. He now finds himself on the verge of indictment for a myriad of potential financial crimes. I can imagine the title ripping across my screen ‘Trumped Up Charges’ where each week he gives a gold rose to the loser as they leave the country club. One look at the cast of characters in this real-life melodrama would probably be rejected by Central Casting. A press conference in a garden supply lot next to a porn shop with his chief lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] literally, dripping in lies. Flanked by a second officer of the court [Sidney Powell] whose defense against a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against her asserts that “no reasonable person” would believe what she said. The suit followed a series of frivolous lawsuits and incomprehensible claims of vote fraud from a pillow tycoon.
This may read like a bad script for a Marx Brothers’ short but that is the saddest part. On the night of November 8, 2016, I can envision Mr. Trump unwrapping a cheeseburger, swilling a Coke, and licking his orange dye-stained fingers watching Fox News. The Fox analysts were counting the numbers and the reality of his winning started to set in; known for being a non-drinker he may have been tempted to have someone spike his Coke with vodka as he cursed Vladimir—this was not the plan. Watching the fawning Fox News host celebrate his unlikely victory meant real work, responsibility, and most frightening, accountability. No more hiding his high profile cons in the anonymity of New York business. A fake university, fake charity, buttressed by phony magazine covers and pretending to be his publicity agent, John Barron.
His lies about his wealth were suddenly not just funny exaggerations, people wanted to know.
Even with his bravado, his shade of lies cannot keep him from burning; declaring everything fakery or vengeful persecution, his usual tactics, are more and more transparent. The adage, “sunlight is the best disinfectant” applies because the shade is being raised.
Continue to Vote for Change.
