Editorial: Donald Trump’s Scorched Earth Policy: Not So Much Enactment As Acting Out

With less than a month before he leaves office, Donald Trump has acted out a policy of (non-)governance that amounts to scorched earth on steroids. Whether he calmly walks out of the Oval Office (unlikely) on his last day as president, is escorted out by police officers (possible), or is forcibly dragged out cursing (most likely), Donald Trump wants to ensure that he leaves a wasteland for his successor, and for the American people. If we thought Donald Trump sowed chaos and division over the past four years, what he’s done during his last days in office (and what he could still do in the remaining month) could wreak even more havoc on our gasping republic.

Trump has succeeded in undermining millions of Americans’ confidence in the American election process and in American systems of government. He has reinforced the belief, especially among his supporters, that Joe Biden won the election because of massive voter fraud. A December Fox News poll indicates that more than one-third of registered voters (77 percent of those who voted for Trump) now believe the election was “stolen” from Donald Trump. Fifty-six percent of all voters, and 85 percent of those who voted for Joe Biden, see Trump as having weakened American democracy by contesting the election. 

Donald Trump has fostered and reinforced such vehement belief among his base that the election was stolen that many of them have taken to alternative social media sites such as Parler to share their grievances, and reinforce each other’s alternative take on reality. Without any proof (and, in fact, ignoring the many times votes have been counted and recounted to prove the opposite), some have made radical plans to rally, take up arms, and “take back the election.” 

Though Trump has a mob of supporters who care nothing for evidence, facts, or truth, and thus are fully behind him, the walls are closing in; the “mainstream media” (MSM), the majority of American voters, and most of the rest of the world recognize Joe Biden as president-elect. So what’s a lame duck president to do if he wants to continue to live in an alternate reality where he is king? 

There’s always martial law. If we thought Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election had put a crack in American democratic systems, his toying with the idea of using the U.S. military to overturn the election, and the fact that anyone, any American, sees that as a rational possibility, threatens to widen the crack.

As far as one can tell, it wasn’t Donald Trump who first suggested the idea, but instead was Michael Flynn, Trump loyalist, former national security adviser, and recently pardoned felon. On pro-Trump media outlet Newsmax, Flynn suggested that Trump invoke martial law, and send the U.S. military to swing states where Biden won, to make those states “rerun the election.” 

And though he didn’t suggest the idea of misusing military troops to displace local law enforcement and re-do a free and fair election in order for it to come out in his favor, Donald Trump has not denounced or discouraged the idea. In fact, he has held discussions in the Oval Office about the possibility. 

With tens of millions of Americans no longer trusting American democratic systems, and with many of those ready to take up their pitchforks (or their AR-15s) in defense of the president who lives and breathes falsehood and would misuse military might to stay in power, the president apparently still needed something more with which to shock Americans who were beginning to think they’d seen it all with this president. 

Enter the use of the presidential pardon. Raising a figurative middle finger to justice and integrity, Donald Trump has begun doling out pardons to shady associates and unprincipled campaign donors as if he were dealing out cards for Blackjack. 

Among the 29 people Trump’s pardon roster so far Paul Manafort, who was convicted during the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election; Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress; and Charles Kushner (yes, Jared Kushner’s father, and Ivanka’s father-in-law), who was convicted of campaign finance offenses, tax evasion, and witness tampering.

Other lucky recipients of Trump pardons are two people who pleaded guilty and served prison time in the Mueller investigation; three former Congressmen who have been convicted of felonies; four Blackwater guards who opened fire in a traffic circle in Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqi civilian men, women, and children; and two border patrol agents who were found guilty of using illegal and excessive force against an illegal immigrant. Earlier, Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, who was found guilty of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

Despite the president’s departure from anything resembling a leader of principle, Americans were led to believe on December 22 that they would at least finally soon get a little financial relief in the form of a coronavirus aid package Congress had just voted to pass.

After months of failing to pass a second bill to provide aid to financially desperate Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, Congress had finally agreed to a stimulus package that they thought President Trump was sure to sign. Though the amount of aid was paltry and included some hoops to jump through and cracks to fall between, unemployed Americans began to have some hopeful anticipation of their small stimulus checks and slim unemployment supplements. 

As if Donald Trump’s need to control situations just for the sake of controlling them hadn’t already been amply fulfilled, Trump shocked Americans, including GOP lawmakers, by suggesting that he wouldn’t sign the stimulus bill. Saying that the $600 one-time relief payment per qualifying person wasn’t enough for Americans (at least he was right about that), he told lawmakers to raise the amount to $2000 per qualifying person, the amount Democrats had in fact been lobbying for for months. 

Adam Schiff tweeted, “Listen, Democrats have been fighting for bigger relief checks for months. All while Trump was missing in action— playing golf, lying about the election, pardoning crooks. If he’s serious about the checks, he needs to get Republicans out of the way. Let’s make this happen.”

Said Nancy Pelosi, ”At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!”

Republicans, who fought for months for a bill that would give hurting Americans as little as Congress could get away with, found themselves in a predicament: vote for Democrats’ original $2000 request and Trump’s demand to increase the amount of the relief checks, or disagree and risk backlash from their constituents.

Lest anyone believe Donald Trump had finally made an attempt to address the need of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, it should be noted that Trump’s behavior thus far has demonstrated that he cares little, if at all, about Americans’ desperation. He has been missing from the discussions and negotiations, and has only shown up to condemn the bill that some aides say he has barely read. 

Trump’s supporters latched on to the belief that Donald Trump was looking out for them by demanding more money in the relief payment, and this is no doubt what Donald Trump wanted… in addition to causing unnecessary uproar among lawmakers.

Now that House Republicans have blocked the $2000 payment measure, there is no clear path forward for the bill, Washington is in economic and political crisis, and millions of Americans stand to plunge into poverty as their current benefits expire the day after Christmas. Donald Trump will no doubt retreat once again, wearing a self-satisfied smirk

Donald Trump has fully absented himself from his job duties as president of the United States. Though his tweets and public appearances railing against the 2020 presidential election outcome might give the impression that he isn’t ready to abdicate his role, he already has. Judging from his scorched-earth approach to the presidential transition, it’s evident that he is aware that he will soon be gone, and wants to make sure he has decimated what he leaves behind. 

Trump says he won’t sign COVID-19 relief bill l Good Morning America
[2020-12-23]

Trump pardons 15, including 4 Blackwater defendants who killed 14 innocent, unarmed Iraqis | Glenn Kirschner [2020-12-22]

Editorial: Arizona GOP Thinks People Should Be Willing to Sacrifice Their Lives for Donald Trump

This week, the Arizona Republican Party sent a tweet asking supporters if they were willing to sacrifice their lives to support Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election. Until this moment, such a tweet would bring to mind suicide bombers in far-off countries, or citizens on the wrong side of democracy in a distant dictatorship. But now, an American political organization, an American political party, is implying that it would be an act of virtue for civilian Trump supporters to be willing to sacrifice their lives in support of Donald Trump’s self-serving obsession with overturning the certified results of an election.

On December 8, right wing activist Ali Alexander tweeted, “I am willing to give my life for this fight,” referring to his dedication to the “fight” to overturn the 2020 election results to favor Donald Trump. The Arizona Republican Party account retweeted the post, and added, “He is. Are you?”

This should terrify Republicans, but it doesn’t appear to. Donald Trump has spent more than four years working his supporters into a hysteria that has caused them to sever their relationships with rational thought.

Trump’s supporters have found him relatable (an “outsider,” just like them, who, they believe, has the same chips on his shoulder as they do). This has made them more than willing to hand Donald Trump the strings controlling their reality. They have heard and validated their own voices in his mocking of “coastal elites;” his fear mongering against immigrants (especially from “sh*thole countries”); his disdain for “others,” including non-white people, and those in the LGBTQ community. They see in him a green light for voicing the fears, the misogyny, the mistrust of the big “Them,” which includes anyone who hasn’t sworn fealty to Donald Trump. They are impressed by his bravado, and they either don’t notice, or don’t care, that the bravado is empty.

Even though Donald Trump has done very little for them, and in fact, one could argue that he has done quite a lot against them, he has convinced them that he has their backs. He has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, knowingly put thousands of his supporters in danger by holding rallies, and discouraged safety measures such as wearing masks, social distancing, and staying home to help prevent the virus’ spread. Yet, they credit him with ending the pandemic (if, of course, it was ever real, anyway).

Trump’s supporters are willing to believe any baseless conspiracy theory Donald Trump pitches in their direction. Their Trump hysteria has, bafflingly, created a lens through which they see Donald Trump’s corrupt actions as heroic acts to save the republic. There is evil everywhere (especially where Democrats tread), except along the trajectory of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump set them up perfectly to believe that the only reason he would not win re-election would be if the election were “stolen.” No one should be shocked, then, that Trump had only to tweet “I won” for his supporters to work themselves into a frenzied, but baseless, insistence that Trump actually did win the election. 

Each recount verifying Biden’s victory, each rejected lawsuit (including two by the Supreme Court), each verification and certification of the results by even Republican officials who had voted for Trump, has only stoked the ire of the #StopTheSteal crowd, and somehow made them even more certain that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Now, some of them, at least, are willing to die for the cause of overturning the election results, and the Arizona Republican Party is suggesting that this is appropriate, and even virtuous. (Will the next step be a promise of rewards in heaven in exchange for a life?)

They have been saving up their 2nd Amendment rights for a time such as this (and such as the peaceful protests and the coronavirus lockdowns). This is another moment for them to confuse themselves with actual patriots who join the real military to help promote and defend actual democracy and integrity— not threaten the lives of good people and endanger others in order to fulfill the corrupt wishes of a delusional man with authoritarian dreams.

We should be angry that so many Americans (or any, really) have become literal fools for Donald Trump. But it’s also a little sad, pathetic, even, that these people whom Donald Trump wouldn’t invite to dinner, ride the bus with, or acknowledge in an elevator, let alone care whether they caught COVID-19 and died, are now, some of them, considering that they might be willing to sacrifice their lives for Donald Trump’s efforts to remain king.

Ariz. GOP Asks Followers if They Are Willing to Die for Election Fight |
The Choice 
 [2020-12-09]

‘Die for something’: Arizona Republican Party deletes martyr tweet about election | 12News KPNX-TV [2020-12-08]