Trump Promises He’ll Make Everything Worse, Just Like Last Time But Even Worse
This is what he thinks of us.
Donald Trump, the once-and-future president, announced his evil plans, unexpurgated, on Sunday’s Meet the Press: He’s going to end birthright citizenship, pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, and imprison his political enemies. None of this should come as a surprise, considering that this was pretty much his entire campaign platform. Trump’s victory is a test case for honest fascism, the perfect union of a gullible public and a feckless media.
Trump told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that it’s “absolutely” his plan to end birthright citizenship on “day one.” (Watch below.)
Welker reminded him that the 14th Amendment exists and plainly states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Of course, the 14th Amendment also plainly states that no one can be president if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” Trump has done it all, but the Supreme Court didn’t seem to care.
Welker asked if he could “get around the 14th Amendment” with an executive order, and Trump rambled on about sending it “back to the people.” Perhaps he assumes the Supreme Court can just overturn 14th Amendment like it did Roe v. Wade, and really there’s never any telling what they’ll say or do next, except that it’s bound to be something astonishing.
The 14th Amendment is considered the “centerpiece” of the Reconstruction Amendments, which along with the 13th and 15th Amendments, abolished slavery, gave Black men the right to vote, and guaranteed full citizenship, due process, and equal protection of the laws to everyone born here. Once citizenship is denied to native-born Americans based on their parents’ legal status, the eroding of the 14th Amendment won’t end there. Yet, this Supreme Court with Clarence Thomas’s vote could very well thumb its nose at the plain language in the 14th Amendment.
Insurrection in chief will pardon insurrectionists
Trump claimed the people convicted of attacking the Capitol of January 6 had been through a “very nasty system” — one that dared hold white people accountable for their violent crimes against democracy.
“I know the system,” the felon in chief said. “The system’s a very corrupt system.” This is the man who’ll soon have control over our federal law enforcement.
Trump insisted that his supporters who assaulted police officers “had no choice,” which is what you can say when you enjoy the full endorsement and continued support of the Fraternal Order of the Police.
“Their whole lives have been destroyed,” he whined. “They’ve been destroyed.”
Trump has promised to pardon January 6 criminals for the past few years, even before he launched his most recent campaign. (No, it has nothing to do with Joe Biden pardoning his son, Hunter.)
“Another thing we'll do, and so many people have been asking me about it, if I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," Trump told a Texas rally crowd in January 2022. “We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”
Vengeance is Trump’s, sayeth Trump
Trump isn’t the “forgive and forget” type. He told Charlie Rose during a 1992 interview, “I love getting even with people.” He hasn’t mellowed with age. According to an NPR investigation, Trump said at least 100 times during the past campaign that “his rivals, critics and even private citizens should be investigated, prosecuted, put in jail or otherwise punished.”
“Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them, and it would be easy because it’s Joe Biden,” he said last June.
He told TV psychologist Phil McGraw, “Well, revenge does take time. I will say that, and sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil, I have to be honest. You know, sometimes it can.”
Welker couldn’t even get Trump to admit that he lost the election. “That’s your opinion,” he said, like someone still disconnected from reality who’ll soon have command over the nuclear codes.
He’s convinced he was cheated in 2020 and believes he was wrongly prosecuted for his many crimes. He won’t let it go. There will be blood. He said the entire January 6 House select committee, including Liz Cheney, Bennie Thompson, and Adam Kinzinger, should “go to jail.” This is why Biden should start issuing pardons like entry stamps at a nightclub.
Peter Baker at The New York Times writes, “At the same time, Mr. Trump seemed to signal that he would not appoint a special counsel to investigate President Biden and his family, as he once vowed.” Of course, Baker doesn’t seem to comprehend that Trump doesn’t need a special counsel when he’s nominated partisan hack Pam Bondi as attorney general and noted Biden family hater Kash Patel as FBI director. The entire DOJ and FBI will function as his personal secret police.
He told Welker that he won’t personally direct the attorney general or FBI director to go after his enemies, but “I think that they’ll have to look at that …” He sounds like an organized crime boss, who distances himself from his lieutenants who “do what he wants without having to ask.”
Trump straight-up admitted that he was firing current FBI Director Christopher Wray for petty personal reasons.
“I can’t say I’m thrilled with him,” Trump said. “He invaded my home. I'm suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago.” (Wray executed a legal search warrant.)
Wray also offended the Mad MAGA king because he didn’t immediately sign off on the approved narrative that Trump was shot this summer by a bullet rather than shrapnel.
If voters elected Trump hoping for more than just two-bit gangster policies, they can expect several lumps of disappointment in their holiday stocking. Trump still only has “concepts of a plan” for health care, and he is seemingly befuddled over the very word “groceries.”
“I won on groceries,” he boasted. “Very simple word, groceries. Like almost, you know, who uses the word. I started using the word. The groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time.”
But he won’t even guarantee that he can keep prices where they are now, let along reduce them. (I was looking forward to 75 cent comic books again.)
“I can't guarantee anything,” Trump said when Welker pressed him on his inflationary tariff policies. “I can’t guarantee tomorrow.”
Tomorrow is in fact guaranteed. The heat death of the universe is not a sure thing, though we might soon wish otherwise.
I am growing frustrated with the people telling me not to panic when I raise concerns about what Trump will do, or mention the mild preparations I am going through, like tidying the house for possible long term family visitors from other states, or keeping my assets liquid or stocking birth control or plan B. I’m not saying bad things will happen immediately, certainly not in my state. These are the mildest of readiness choices, useful regardless of good or bad outcomes. I don’t expect them to do much good, and I hope they aren’t necessary. But I am very much annoyed with “oh, don’t be afraid!” from people who view my concern as overreacting. Do they not remember last time? Do they not hear the actual words coming from the man’s mouth? Do they not know the historic results of states of war plus natural disasters plus dissatisfaction with the political system?
I’m a middle aged woman and I’m over being frightened into not going to the ER in case my symptoms will be blown off or I will be told it’s just a cold. Pardon all the people, Biden. Stop insisting this is an overreaction or a declaration of war, media. Media brought this upon us and I’m not listening to their accusations of me overreacting anymore.
>> Trump insisted that his supporters who assaulted police officers “had no choice,” which is what you can say when you enjoy the full endorsement and continued support of the Fraternal Order of the Police.<<
Huh. One would think the FOP wouldn’t look with favor on someone who sides with domestic terrorists over their police officers, who are only trying to do their job. Wonder how LEOs feel about such an unsupportive organization?