Political Service Announcement #3 - Trump Moves Only Toward the Darkness
This Isn't New News
Donald Trump’s descent into madness and darkness, proceeds apace. Despite what his campaign says or the mainstream media says, Trump is not ‘better’ or ‘more disciplined’ than he was in the past. He’s the same hulking, gelatinous mass of grievance, revenge, and amorality. As I’ve written previously, this will not change between now and November. When confronted with a choice of paths, Trump (and MAGA) always takes the road into the darkness.
Let me start with a story about Nikki Haley. In December, when she gave a terrible answer about the start of the Civil War (she wouldn’t confirm slavery as the root cause,) she spent the next week trying to clean it up. This is what an otherwise normal politician would do.
If Trump had been asked the same question and answered it the same way, he wouldn’t have tried to clean it up. No, he would have doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on the confederate fever dream of the Lost Cause. He would’ve noted good people ‘on both sides.’ If really pushed, he would probably have called it “The War of Northern Aggression.”
When pushed Trump always takes the worst path. This is largely due to his own malignant narcissim and messianic worldview. But it speaks to a larger issue that the pro-democracy movement must consistently, firmly, but not hyperbolicly, call out: Trump has always told us who he is. He’s a pathetic excuse for a human, let alone a leader, and has zero interest in helping anyone other than himself.
This is a tyrant’s warmup act.
Last April, when Trump officially announced his campaign, he chose Waco, Texas. This was no accident, of course. He chose hallowed ground for the evangelical Christian militia, anti-government movement. He had convicted January 6th rioters singing MAGA’s versio of the Horst Wessel Song. “I am your retribution” Trump whined into the microphone to raucus applause.
That wasn’t enough, though! A year later, Trump’s rallies are full of imagery of J6ers (hostages he calls them) promising to free them as soon as he takes office. Just today, his campaign announced that it would use January 6th as a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign.
To recap:
Donald Trump incites a riot against a co-equal branch of government, his own vice president, and American democracy itself, and this is now the basis of his return to the White House. Is the strategy of a man who believes he was wrong? Of course not? It’s a preview. You think January 6th was bad? You a’int seen nothin’ yet.
When asked about this, Trump’s spokesperson said, “President Trump will restore justice for all Americas who have been unfairly treated.”
He wasn’t done yet, though. He posted on his “Truth” social, that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a solid, conservative voice against Trump and MAGA, should “She should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!”
January 6th will get a lot of attention, but Trump won’t stop there. Two weekends ago, he ridiculed Joe Biden for his stutter. The crowd laughed along with him. Trump is a bully, he picks on those weaker than him because he’s so empty and cowardly, only punching down makes him feel better.
In response, President Biden didn’t engage with Trump, he met a young man in Wisconsin who is also dealing with a stutter. Biden’s display of light further enhances Trump’s own darkness.
Here’s what we can count on, though: His childish, insulting, and inhuman attacks on Biden and those he considers weak, will only intensify. As he and his campaign team realize that they’ve hemmoraged many moderate Republicans, independents are fleeing, and Democrats are energizing, they’ll intensify the ridicule and hate. They have no where else to go.
Despite what his campaign says about Trump ‘moderating’ on abortion, he’s done nothing of the sort, and will not in the next seven months. White Christian evangelicals are the only bloc of voters he can count on. They are the base of the modern Republican Party. They love the Dobbs decision, and the insanity that has flowed out of MAGA states since the spring of 2022.
When he starts to feel weak, Trump always runs home to the base. They’re the only people that love him unconditionally, what he desperately wants, and so when the time comes, he will yell, once again, “I killed Roe!” He’ll say women should be prosecuted for abortions. Eventually, he’ll call for a nationwide abortion ban. Why? This is the only place he has left to go.
Similarly, on Ukraine, NATO, and American national security, Donald Trump will climb deeper into isolationism and his love affair with Putin, Xi, MBS, and Kim. He can’t help it. He’s Dictator Fan Boy #1.
Before November, he won’t just be insulting NATO, he’ll be promising to leaving our European allies to their own fate. He’ll say the Ukrainians are corrupt and in need of the kind of ‘leadership’ only the Kremlin can provide.
There’s no ‘normal’ here folks. If the specifics above weren’t enough, let’s remember Trump:
Called immigrants ‘vermin.’
Called the media the ‘enemy of the people.’
Called for mass deportation of immigrants.
Wants to radically re-order Washington to gut the parts of government that help people and bolster those agencies that control people.
As summer approaches, and Americans become more engaged, Trump’s poll numbers will begin a steady descent. I’ve noted before he’s an electoral loser. His party is smaller and more extreme than it was four or eight years ago. His decline will prompt further extremism and insanity.
We must prepare accordingly; reminding Americans who and what we beleive. We must remind our fellow citizens all day, every day, of the choice they face. We must frame this campaign as about values: Where do you see yourself? What do you want to tell your kids?
Like so many other MAGAs, there is only one direction - toward the darkness
It’s not novel, but presidential campaigns reveal their candidates. Donald Trump has been as open and transparent about who and what he cares about (himself, money, power) than any other president or candidate in American history. The days of “take him seriously but not literally” are long over. The things he says, he believes, at least in that moment.
For those Americans who believe in democracy, freedom, and individual liberty, the Republican Party exists in Trump’s eclipse. The question for you, your friends, and for all Americans is whether his shadow is a place we want to live. The darkness that now creeps over the land will bring perptual night. Are you willing to risk that?
I’m not.
News and Notes:
I am beyond delighted to present my conversation with the inimitable Kara Swisher on the latest Lincoln Project podcast. I hope you’ll check it out and enjoy it as much as I did!
I agree with you, but would like it if you explained the link between the hired clown and the Heritage Foundation. Yes, he's Putin's choice. But he's also the Heritage Foundation's frontman.
The Heritage Foundation has been in operation since 1973 and flourished under Ronald Regan in the 1980s with the agenda to fundamentally change how our government functions. It was their conscripting of the conservative Christians to overturn Roe v Wade way back in the 1980s. It was far less about abortion (for the HF) than about enticing conservative Christians to support the foundation's policies and plans. The Heritage Foundation was developed (and caused) specifically for today's political climate and Trump fit the bill. Trump doesn't understand or even know he's being used. And the foundation doesn't care that he's uncontrollable. They simply needed the distractor-in-chief to keep us all busy while they placed their loyalist in charge all over the country. ALEC has been in operation since at least the 1990s writing legislation for local and state governments paving the way for the next election.
There is a much larger threat to our country than Trump and Putin. It's the Heritage Foundation's plan (Project 2025) to overthrow our way of governing and placing themselves at the head of their new government. Trump tells us what he's learned and "let slip" in his rallies by his HF handlers. Don't forget, he's not that smart. But he's mailable as long as you flatter him and feed him the language. People like Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and Joseph Coors founded the organization and grew to include others like Betsy DeVos, Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry,Scott Pruitt, Jeff Sessions, and so many others who were inserted into Trump's first administration, have been plotting for decades are standing on the precipice success. We can't let them win!
Reed, your essays are beautifully written and passionate. When you write about the bullying, I almost tear up. Most disappointing are his followers that cheer the ugliness. These grownups have for the past 8 years been showing their dark empty souls to the world in their adoration for a soulless, false prophet. Trump moderating? Some saying he will restore justice for all American's who have been unfairly treated.!?#*? (Hmm, does that mean restorations of the voting rights act.?) I think if you are all following Reed, it means we are on the same page. I know I need reach to reach out to more folks, not MAGA's, who are not on this page with us. There is a volume of them out there. Let's talk with them. Again, thanks Reed, for your leadership.