The 170 Million Dollar Man
(Door Hugo Kijne te Hoboken USA)
According to a revealing article in the Washington Post the last three weeks Trump has been roaming the corridors of the White House muttering ‘I won, I won, I won’ while staffers went into hiding for fear of running into the delusional president, whom the Post compared to Mad King George. Contrary to Trump’s apparent conviction his losses in court were mounting during the same period, with as the absolute showstopper a ruling by the highest court of Pennsylvania that was structured in such a way that an appeal to the Supreme Court is not possible. Simultaneously battleground states were certifying Biden’s victories, in spite of mafia-like calls from the Trump campaign to election officials trying to coerce them into not doing their legal and moral duty. When the organized crime approach failed the president used his bully pulpit in an attempt to have Republican Governors overrule their Secretaries of State and de-certify the election results, something Governors don’t have the authority to do, and as a last resort his lawyers staged ‘hearings’ with GOP legislators attempting to have them appoint pro-Trump slates of Electors.
In November not only the president’s contempt for the democratic process was front and center in the public eye, but also his blessed ignorance of how the legal system works. Trump had wanted to assemble all his fantasized grievances into one case and present it to the Supreme Court, and was shocked, shocked when he found out that apart from procedural barriers he didn’t have standing to do that. ‘I’m the US President,’ he whined, ‘how do I not have standing?’ echoing his inner Louis XIV. Meanwhile the head clown of Circus Giuliani showed that he had a fine red nose for timing, by at least on three occasions having his performances coincide with a Biden victory or certification thereof, first at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, when Joe Biden’s overall victory was called, then again in Pennsylvania and finally in Arizona. When the latter state was the last to certify its election results on Monday Trump had added not only the Georgia and Arizona Governors to his enemies list, but also the FBI and the Department of Justice, who had failed to unearth and prosecute the widespread election fraud he was convinced had occurred.
While Trump gets accustomed to the fact that he’ll be a one-term president after January 20th there is wild speculation about his next steps. It’s clear that he wants to keep control over the Republican Party and it is quite possible that he’ll announce his candidacy for 2024 at some event simultaneously with Biden’s inauguration. That will be the beginning of a four year long grievance campaign to undermine Biden’s presidency. It will keep the GOP from renewing itself and hurt the party, starting next month when the two remaining Georgia Senate seats are at stake.
As he is going through the five stages of grief, now still hovering between denial and anger and probably never getting to acceptance, Trump, or more likely Jared Kushner, kept his eye on the ball with regards to his financial interests. So far the president’s campaign’s soliciting support for the ‘legal challenges’ of the election results has generated $170 million that will go straight into Trump’s pockets, minus the $3 million he spent in Wisconsin to give Joe Biden 87 more votes.
As the rats prepare to jump off Trump’s sinking ship Dr. Scott Atlas, who resigned yesterday, led the way. Trump brought Atlas, a radiologist without infectious disease experience, into the White House as an advisor on the COVID pandemic because he said nice things about the president on Fox News, and together they have caused more pain and death, social and economic damage than any other twosome in US history.
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