President Trump’s re-election campaign featured too many farcical and cynical moments to count. But perhaps none epitomized them more than the flyby rallies he held in covid hot spots. Because there we saw crowds variously cheering and baying as he regaled them with brazen lies and hollow threats.
What took the cake, though, was Trump telling these poor, misguided folks that he intends to take away their health insurance. And neither he nor they seemed to care about the deadly consequences that portended – given the unprecedented pandemic still ravaging the country. But then, as if to make clear that he thinks they’re a bunch of suckers and losers, he flew to perform the same Barnum and Bailey show at another rally, leaving them stranded in the cold for hours.
Supporters of President Donald Trump were left stranded for hours Sunday night in cold weather after a campaign rally at Richard B. Russell Regional Airport in Rome, Georgia due to transportation issues, making it the third such incident in the past seven days.
(Forbes, November 2, 2020)
Alas, this is just one of far too many ways Trump has exploited that Barnumesque maxim. Except that one can hardly blame him for thinking that there’s not just one sucker born every minute, but thousands.
Of course, the Mueller Report documented – in incriminating detail – how he used Russian President Vladimir Putin’s playbook (and propaganda trolls) to get elected. Therefore, I see no point in belaboring that cynical farce.
But I remain stupefied that so many pundits were shocked on election night to see how effectively Trump had exploited Latinos in Florida. What took the cake in this case was Trump telling these poor, misguided folks that, if elected, Joe Biden would turn America into an even worse version of the socialist dictatorships they escaped in places like Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Except, of course, that this is the same Trump who
- used Russian dictator Putin to get elected, and then threw US intelligence agencies under the bus to do Putin’s bidding throughout his presidency;
- expressed an open love affair with North Korean dictator Kim, and then ignored all warnings about Kim building up his nuclear arsenal instead of getting rid of them – as he evidently whispered in Trump’s ear he would do; and
- played defense attorney for Saudi Arabian dictator MBS, and then prevented Congress from imposing sanctions after clear and convincing evidence implicated MBS in the infamous assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
On and on it went – with Trump fraternizing with every dictator who used idle flattery to stroke his ego. And all the while, he was quarreling with every ally who dared challenge him to champion America’s own democratic values and honor its commitments. This featured him complaining about everything from allies not paying enough to fund NATO to not showing him enough love (you know, like Kim of North Korea did).
Which brings me to Venezuelan dictator Maduro. Trust me, his only problem in this respect is that, like Cuban exiles, many of the people who fled his dictatorship resettled in red states like Florida and Texas. Trump is hardly the master negotiator he boasts about being – as his bungled nuclear negotiations with Kim demonstrated. But when it comes to pandering (and projecting) for votes, he’s a grand master.
This explains how he was able to exploit the fears of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants to get them to buy into the following Orwellian analogy:
- Donald Trump is to Thomas Jefferson as Joe Biden is to Nicolás Maduro.
Mind you, all any Venezuelan immigrant had to do was look at Trump’s dictatorial behavior throughout his presidency to see through his doublespeak. Not to mention that I’ve been publishing PSAs about his pathological habit of projecting even longer than that:
The psychopathology afoot here is called projection. It is defined by people attributing to others traits, faults, and blame that inhere in themselves. And it explains almost every insult Trump has hurled at his opponents throughout this presidential campaign.
So when you hear him calling other people crooked, insecure, weak, beholden to special interests, liars, etc., be mindful that he’s just revealing self-conscious truths about himself, dimwittedly.
(“Forget the Clinton Foundation. Shut Down the Trump Organization!” The iPINIONS Journal, August 26, 2016)
The point is that Trump is now using the same dictatorial tactics to defy the democratic will of the American people that he spent the past four years accusing Maduro of using to defy the democratic will of the Venezuelan people.
The firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper kicked off a rapid-fire series of high-level departures at the Pentagon on Tuesday, setting off alarms on Capitol Hill that the White House was installing loyalists to carry out President Donald Trump’s wishes during an already tense transition. …
Fears continue to swirl over what these newly installed leaders will do as Trump fights the results of last week’s election, and after he has shown he is willing to use troops to solve political problems.
(Politico, November 11, 2020)
Perhaps you recall how he used this year’s State of the Union Address to hail opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the duly elected president of Venezuela. To bipartisan applause, he decried the way Maduro stole Guaidó’s presidency by hook, crook, and, yes, military intervention.
But I was convinced even back then that Trump was just using Guaidó for a made for reality-TV moment. This is why I dismissed that cynical farce in “Trump’s SOTU Address: Comforting Fools, Notably Venezuela’s Guaidó,” February 20, 2020.
Of course, Maduro has squashed all democratic opposition and is now positioned to rule for life. This is why I am convinced that Trump would like nothing more than for the following analogy to play out:
- Donald Trump is to Nicolás Maduro as Joe Biden is to Juan Guaidó.
Yes, Trump’s inconsistency, treachery, and hypocrisy know no bounds. Indeed, I would not be at all surprised if Trump has not seen or even spoken to Guaidó since collaring him for that dog and pony show last February.
What’s more, now that he no longer needs to pander for their votes, Venezuelan immigrants should beware that Trump would sooner sell them swampland in Florida than give another thought to the fate of democracy in Venezuela.
That said, I’m all too mindful that nearly 72 million Americans voted for Trump. This, despite his open and notorious dictatorial antics, which he compounded with kakistocratic incompetence and autocratic indifference.
But he’s now throwing the latter into tragic relief. Because, while he’s busy aping Maduro to hold onto power, he’s making crystal clear that he couldn’t care less
- that nearly 250,000 people in this country have already died and nearly 1500 are now dying every day from a pandemic he assured all Americans would be over nine months ago; or
- that another 250,000 will likely die before Covid vaccines begin saving lives.
Yet he undoubtedly cares even less
- that, pursuant to his immigration policies, hundreds of Latina mothers had their babies ripped from their arms and were summarily returned to dictatorships from whence they fled, never to see their babies again.
Surely only a dictator (or a wannabe one) would be so systematically and serially heartless, and think he could get away with it. Well, no thanks to Latino immigrants in Florida, Trump will not.
Ominously, though, he seems hell-bent on playing every petty, dirty trick in Maduro’s playbook until January 20, 2021, when Biden will be inaugurated as the duly elected president of the United States.
For example, he is already
- arranging personnel on the deck of his sinking presidency, pretending like it has just been inaugurated for a second term; and
- blocking messages of congratulations leaders from around the world are sending to the state department for President-elect Biden.
Therefore, no matter how much Trump makes America look like a banana republic over the next 69 days, bear in mind that nearly 78 million Americans voted for Biden. And they can rely on personnel in every government department and institution (including the US military) taking orders from him after Inauguration Day.
Indeed, despite Trump’s temper tantrums, this transition will play out in ways Venezuelans who voted for Guaidó could only dream of.
Related commentaries:
Mueller Report… North Korea … MBS and Putin… Jamal Khashoggi… Guaido and Venezuela… Biden-Harris…