WHEN IT’S TIME TO EXIT
Photo credit: ABC News, biography.com, britannica.com, The Churchill Society
Madmen often do not go quietly. Will Trump?
Near the end of World War II, as the Allies and Russians closed in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler turned his ire inward, against his fellow citizens, ordering a campaign of massive destruction against Germany.
A disturbed and delusional maniac, who once boldly touted his vision for a 1,000-year Reich anchored by the superiority of the German people, Hitler sank into uncontrolled despair and tried to purposefully ruin much of what was left of German infrastructure. If not for insubordinate officers, Hitler would have blown up bridges, roads, factories and anything else he could think of.
In Africa, Idi Amin ruled Uganda with a murderous fist against his own people from 1971-1979. When formerly loyal soldiers and officials turned on him in mutiny, and collaborated with Tanzania, Amin panicked and overreached, annexing a strip of territory in Tanzania. Soon after, Amin found himself in exile after being defeated in battle by Tanzania.
Two more examples of deranged souls sweeping up those around them as the clock expired can be found in Jim Jones and David Koresh. Both Jones and Koresh provide classic illustrations of controlling narcissists who, when it became apparent their empire was about to end under the threat of legal jeopardy, selfishly take down those around them, many of whom had been innocently loyal to a fault.
Yes, when the end draws near, madmen are prone to suck those around them into their implosion vacuum of self-pity and despair.
Whither Trump?
CNN, the cable news giant that these days too often chases audience ratings over substantive reporting – frequently giving a platform to unpatriotic liars like Kellyanne Conway, Niger Innis and Rick Santorum – recently provided a useful chart highlighting the investigations swirling around Donald Trump.
Even the Trump faithful, many still feeling resplendent wearing MAGA hats, must be queasy when confronted with the compounding legal problems closing in on their man Trump.
Right now, the president of the United States is under serious and real heat related to the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, the Trump administration, the Trump Foundation, the Trump Inaugural Committee, and the Trump Organization.
All told, according to Wired.com, Trump World is subject to 17 investigations across federal, state and local jurisdictions. Not a “witch hunt,” this is a manhunt.
And the president is in the crosshairs of special counsel Robert Mueller, The Southern District of New York, the attorney general of the State of New York, and other investigators, all homing in on Trump.
Even if there are some prosecutorial swings and misses, there is plenty of meat on the Trump bone to send the president and/or some of his children to prison.
Despite political soft-pedaling by some leadership Democrats, it will be a shocker if Trump’s acts do not add up to collusion with the Russian government, obstruction of justice and betrayal against the United States of America.
The Trump administration’s blatant disregard for the U.S. Constitution will render severe consequences, beyond the prison sentences already imposed on Michael Cohen, and being considered for Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn.
(The Weekly Opine agrees with everything the Mueller investigation has done except the recommendation that Flynn be sentenced to zero to six months in prison. Despite Flynn’s cooperation, his crimes deserve real time in prison; at least five years.)
Regarding Trump’s dilemma, Richard Painter, the former chief ethics attorney for President George W. Bush, says, “It’s quite clear his goose is cooked here.”
Echoing sentiment offered months ago by Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer of Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” Painter believes Trump should strike a plea deal with federal and state prosecutors in return for his resignation. Painter concludes, “Donald Trump is in serious trouble.”
Longtime Washington D.C. political veteran and MSNBC “Hardball” Chris Matthews warns the Mueller investigation is at a “breaking point.” Matthews prognosticates that Trump could soon cut a deal to protect himself, Don Jr. and Ivanka and “resign in the coming weeks.”
Which makes one wonder, what will Trump do as his ship sinks? Will he puncture available lifeboats so everyone else goes down with him?
The opinion here is not that Trump will resort to Jim Jones-like overt murdering of Americans. However, the president’s cheerleading, after Texas-based Federal Judge Reed O’Connor ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, is tantamount to Trump applauding the suffering and likely deaths of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, if Obamacare is ultimately repealed.
Ripe North Korea
As has been widely reported, North Korea has jump-started its saber-rattling, proof again that the pomp and circumstances Singapore Summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un was simply grandiose posturing for Trump (the man does like to posture) and was a global-sized victory for Kim.
North Korea’s current beef with the U.S. stems from sanctions recently leveled against three North Korean diplomats. The Kim regime’s reaction was, not surprisingly, inflammatory and carried a warning that “exchanges of fire” may result, with the nuclear disarming of Pyongyang in peril.
Last December, The Weekly Opine argued the best way to keep Trump from activating America’s nuclear codes may in fact be deterrence. That commentary is at theweeklyopine.com/blog/2017/12/21/the-nuke-reality.
As we learned during the Kennedy-Khrushchev crisis, when both sides have nukes they each seriously and thoughtfully consider the consequences of nuclear war. Thus, the deterrence factor worked during the 1960s U.S.-Soviet crisis.
Of course, the world was in the hands of two skilled and sane men in Kennedy and Khrushchev. The same cannot be said for Trump and Kim.
Given Trump’s proclivity to incessantly poke and prod, and his hyper-sensitivity when the favor is returned, we should quickly move beyond the question, “Should the nuclear codes be taken away from a visibly unstable president?”
Instead, Congress must act urgently to legally take the nuclear codes away from Trump, who for nearly two years on the world stage has been a member-in-good-standing of the madmen club, chummy with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Mohammed bin Salman.
Pressure-stress test
Ask anyone who’s experienced pressure and stress and they will tell you pressure can be dealt with. Pressure brings out the best in ‘winners.’ Performing and delivering top performance when under pressure can be an exhilarating adrenaline rush superior to any artificial, drug-induced high.
On the other hand, stress can literally kill you. Right now, Trump, no matter his extreme narcissism and apparent total lack of empathy toward anyone else, surely must have long ago transitioned from pressure to full tilt stress.
Isolation, along with the walls of justice, close in around Trump. To quote the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, Donald Trump and his petulant kin are “trapped like mice.”
What can we expect from madman “The Donald” as his political world crumbles, with the real possibility of prison time?
Trump has already made America’s present, and future, more precarious with bad decisions related to respect for the rule of law, education, the tax cut, voter suppression, climate change, Supreme Court and other federal judge appointments, race relations, women’s rights, immigration, trade relations, the deficit, debt, and small businesses and farmers.
Trump’s highly unusual coddling of Russia and his on-again, off-again tango with North Korea are way outside the norm for legit, patriotic U.S. presidents.
Any objective analysis must conclude the Trump administration has already output not easily reversible damage to the United States, with policies and actions that are the antithesis of “Make America Great Again.”
For example, just this week Trump pulled U.S. troops out of Syria at the request of Turkey but against the advice of his military advisers. As a result, Secretary of Defense James Mattis quit (good for Russia, not good for America). A stock market plunge followed. And a government shutdown looms, likely before the end of the weekend.
The mystery is what, if any, unpatriotic acts of madman destruction might a desperate, panicked Trump levy on America, before climbing aboard Marine One helicopter on the White House south lawn for the last time?
© 2018 Douglas Freeland / The Weekly Opine