In a story published early in December, Washington Post reporters Robert Costa and Philip Rucker wrote of the anxiety-to-the-point-of-panic now endemic—or, epidemic (though, relative to the Trump era, endemic is probably more accurate)—among Republicans about the distinct lack of planning on the part of the White House per defending President Trump and his administration against a growing chorus of harsh criticism and public outrage, the volume of which is going to rise to crescendo proportions when Democrats take the reins of the House of Representatives in early January.
The anxiety/panic is probably warranted.
Partisan hacks such as Paul “I Guess Everyone Now Knows I’m Not A Policy Wonk, I’m Not A Public Intellectual & I’m Not An Altar Boy” Ryan, Kevin “Geez, Guys, Everybody Violates Campaign Finance Laws” McCarthy, Devin “I Didn’t Leak Classified Information Provided By The White House For Me To Leak” Nunes, Jim “I’m Still Being Investigated About Being Complicit In Burying Sexual Abuse Complaints In The Wrestling Program At Ohio State” Jordan, Mark “The Earth Is Flat, Prove Me Wrong” Meadows, Duncan “I’m Innocent, I Tell You” Hunter, Steve “I’m Only Pretending To Be A White Supremacist” King, Louie “I Just Returned From My Home on Neptune” Gohmert, Trey “I Need A New Barber” Gowdy and innumerable other members of the House Republican Clown Show have conspired for the past two years to hide from the public not only the gross incompetence of the Trump administration’s policies both foreign and domestic but also the inner details of what has to be the most blatantly dishonest/corrupt/embarrassing/potentially destructive administration in American history.
When Nancy Pelosi gavels the new, Democratic-majority House into session on January 3, however, Trump and his corrupt cohorts are suddenly going to find themselves without the cover provided by Republicans over the past 24 months.
Subpoenas, anyone?
The prospect of the House of Representatives actually performing its constitutional duties regarding serious, responsible oversight has resulted in Klonopin and/or Xanax—take your pick, but remember that each is highly addictive—replacing the M&M’s which once filled the little candy dispensers in the Republican cloakroom. And the absence of a White House “War Room” staffed with partisans skilled in crisis management—Costa/Rucker quote one highly-placed Republican official as saying that Trump and his Band of Merry Amateurs are taking a “shrugged shoulders” approach to the dangers posed by the robust and productive investigation of Robert Mueller and his team of Investigative/Prosecutorial All-Stars—has resulted in the offices of some Republican House members receiving suspiciously large deliveries of crates bearing the brand names Grey Goose and Dewar’s. [Caution: Drinking while taking controlled substances such as Klonopin or Xanax can be hazardous to your health and/or diminish the chances that you will see the sun rise the next morning!]
Neither are the tremors of either Senate or House Republicans—much less Republican stakeholders (read, “Big Donors”)—calmed by Trump’s delusional/lie-filled/laughable tweets, one of which actually announced that the long list of allegations lodged, indictments brought and convictions secured per his campaign associates, administration members and even his former personal lawyer “totally clear” him.
His logic is unassailable, right?
Amirite?
Of course, they can take some solace from the news that, “according to advisers” interviewed by Costa/Rucker, “Trump remains headstrong in his belief that he can outsmart adversaries.”
Alrighty, then!
Makes sense to me!
Why would the White House need a “War Room” to navigate some seriously adversarial circumstances when the “stable genius” who occupies the Oval Office has such a sterling record of being able to “outsmart adversaries?”
That has certainly proved to be the case with, oh, say, Stephanie Clifford (aka Stormy Daniels). And with the Attorney General of the State of New York, who has shuttered the slush fund that Trump called his “Foundation” and is investigating it for “deal me” fraud (along with a variety of tax violations). And with the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is digging into exactly where the $107 million tsunami of donations to the Trump Inaugural Committee came from and exactly how it was—or, wasn’t—spent. And with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York—headed, interestingly enough, by a Trump-appointee—which is apparently within inches of locking down a case of criminal campaign finance fraud against the president, Donald, Jr., Ivanka and poor, pathetic Eric. And, upping the ante, Trump has certainly made a chump out of Vladimir Putin, right? And Bibi Netanyahu, right? And Mohammed bin Salman, right? And Recep Erdogan, right? And Xi Jinping, right? And Kim Jong-un, right? And his ability to “outsmart adversaries” is certainly made manifest in the “big, beautiful wall” that Mexico has, at its own expense, almost finished building along the entire length of the southern border, right?
Amirite?
Amirite?
If President “Art of the Deal” Trump has proved himself to be adept at anything, it would not be outsmarting adversaries but making adversaries out of former allies. Think, the U.K. Think, France. Think, Belgium. Think, Germany. Think, Canada. Think, Finland. Think, Norway. Think, Sweden. Think, Mexico. Think, NATO. For God’s sake, think of the Kurds—the never-back-down ground combat warriors who fought alongside American troops in Iraq and who are the true heroes per liberating most of northeastern Syria from ISIS occupation (and whom Trump will now abandon, when U.S. forces leave, to slaughter by Turkish forces). Keep on thinking, the list is much longer.
In the end, Trump seems to be depending on one strategy to get out of the corner into which he has painted himself: No matter the cruel failures of what more generous observers term his “foreign policy,” no matter the cruel failures of what more generous observers term his “domestic policy,” no matter the chaos and blatant corruption that has reigned inside his administration since its beginning, no matter his assaults on foundational American institutions, no matter his assaults on American democratic norms, no matter his self-expressed intent to divide the country into warring camps, no matter his own disgusting incivility nor his encouragement of that same incivility amongst his followers, no matter his and his administration’s utter disregard/disdain for the truth, no matter the evidence which continues to accumulate in the offices of Robert Mueller’s team and in the offices of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Donald Trump is certain that, in the words of Costa/Rucker, “most GOP base voters will believe whatever the president tells them to believe.”
So, to those lily-livered Republican sell-outs who long ago chose party over country and power over patriotism and who must now live with the fact that history never stops taking names, allow me to offer these calming words, “Well, there’s that.”