Donald Trump is conjuring his most foreboding vision yet of a possible second term, telling supporters in language resonant of the run-up to the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol that they need to “fight like hell” or they will lose their country.
The only saving grace here is he talks a lot of shit all the time and then doesn't follow through. His first term was supposed to be wild too. They were going to build a wall across North America and Mexico was going to pay for it. Never happened. He was going to force companies to not ship jobs overseas. Never happened. They were going to stop all Muslims coming into the country. They tried, but failed. He was going to assign a special prosecutor to lock up Hillary Clinton. Never happened. They were going to repeal Obamacare on day one... The list goes on and on. He's full of shit all the time.
Trump never expected to win in 2016 and had no understanding of how the government worked, on any level. He still likely has no understanding how much of the government works, but he now understands how to warp it to protect and serve himself, and you bet against him doing so from day one at your peril.
The reason I think this will happen is it doesn't really rely on Trump at all. He'll just do what he's told by these fascists and go along with it. Same thing he did before with the court packing, but this time on an entirely different level.
Removing career employees out of the federal government is how you actually remove the ability of the government to function. These are the people that actually know the rules AND FOLLOW THEM because if not their jobs are on the line. Unlike politicians, they can't just lie to people and get back in power.
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The rhetorical escalation from the four-times-indicted ex-president came at a rally in South Dakota on Friday night where he accused his possible 2024 opponent, President Joe Biden, of ordering his indictment on 91 charges across four criminal cases as a form of election interference.
While his predecessor spent the weekend casting doubt on America’s election system, Biden was on the other side of the globe in India and Vietnam building international support for his signature foreign policy strategy of combating the threat to Western democracy from authoritarian leaders in China and Russia.
Back home, the ex-president’s extremism also exposes the timidity of most of his Republican primary rivals, who have recently been ganging up on rookie candidate Vivek Ramaswamy but are only willing to criticize Trump in the most oblique terms to avoid crossing his millions of GOP supporters.
Trump’s bluntness and carefully maintained image as an outsider, despite the fact that he used to live in the White House, allow him to endlessly tap a seam of resentment against Washington and political, economic and media “elites” that is deeply felt by many who back the “Make America Great Again” movement.
And schooled by Trump, Republicans widely complain that the current president’s son, Hunter Biden – who is under investigation by a special counsel over alleged tax and gun law violations after the collapse of a plea deal – is being given preferential treatment by the Justice Department.
But the hundreds of pages of evidence in criminal indictments alleging Trump’s use of presidential power to try to steal an election and the way he is using his appearances and social media to try to intimidate judges and potential jury pools ahead of his trials have left such critiques badly outdated.
Not that CNN has ever had the best political reporting, but this article is hot garbage. Almost entirely focusing on the tone and kayfabe of Trump's rhetoric without really touching upon the ways in which he has openly plotted to warp our system into something quite unrecognizable.
That said, this middle section really stands alone:
Trump’s authoritarianism may make the 2024 election a profound choice
may
The former president’s increasing demagoguery also puts the spotlight on key unknowns of the 2024 election:
– Does the GOP risk nominating a candidate whose untamed behavior will alienate voters in many suburban swing districts who turned against him in the 2020 election, especially given the possibility that he could be a convicted felon by the time voters make their choice?
– And if Trump wins the nomination, will his liabilities and the prospect of four more years of chaos and recriminations mitigate concerns about Biden’s physical and mental competence and concerns about the economy, as revealed in a CNN poll last week that captured a broadly negative view of his presidency?
There are plenty of polls that already address this issue. They show that the answers to both of these look to be a resounding yes. This isn't one of those questions that can never be answered, like the square root of a million or something.
The numbers of people who affirmatively believe that Biden was involved in Hunter's business dealings is dispiriting, though. That, mixed with the constant media drumbeat over Biden's age, is most likely what's keeping things so close at this point.
this is giving this man way more credit than he deserves. he was a puppet for the right with regards to anything that didnt devolve to getting dollars into his pockets. he doesnt give 2 shits about the SC, i doubt he could name its members.
trump is an idiot who accidentally became elected, and then became the republicans rubber stamp on everything they want.
i get wanting to pin evil on this guy, but realistically, its the entrenched conservatives like mcconnell who are the root evil.